Obamacare
What to know: The Affordable Care Act subsidies enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic have now expired.
The TPPF take: Those subsidies have helped drive up health care costs.
“Subsidies are often sold as help for working families, but in practice they are a major reason health care costs keep rising,” says TPPF’s Brian Phillips. “They prop up a broken system that operates as an unholy alliance between hospitals, insurers, and the federal government. They allow government to exert control over health care while guaranteeing that hospitals and insurers keep getting paid as prices spiral upward.”
For more on the ACA, click here.
A Cool Breeze
What to know: The controversial Vineyard Wind offshore energy project has been “paused” by the Department of the Interior.
The TPPF take: TPPF attorneys have been fighting the Vineyard Wind project for years.
“Commercial fishing families have been using the area to feed Americans for generations,” says TPPF’s Ted Hadzi-Antich. “Finally, the federal government has realized that the project was ill-founded from the beginning. The next step is for the government to order the developer to remove every last bit of equipment installed during construction and bring the area back to a pristine, fishable habitat for the benefit of all Americans.”
For more on offshore wind, click here.
Coming Due
What to know: Property taxes are due on Jan. 31; penalties and interest start accruing after that date.
The TPPF take: Property taxes are an ever-increasing burden for Texans.
“There are many ways to rein in skyrocketing tax bills, but perhaps the most effective solution is to require local governments to live within their means, as determined by a strict spending limit. By tightly governing the growth of local government spending, other relief and reform concepts will actually be able to take root,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “Government over-spending is the heart of Texas’ property tax problem.”
For more on local spending, click here.