Don't Mess With Taxes

Who is as upset as the president about the latest round of problems with Obamacare?

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp.

The Republican Representative from Michigan reportedly is champing at the bit to release his long-awaited tax reform bill. Many of his GOP colleagues, however, want him to hold off.

Why? They're getting great political mileage out of the latest Affordable Care Act snafu.

Missed original enrollment opportunity: Republicans weren't able to make political hay when folks were frustrated by problems at the opening of the federal health care exchange on Oct. 1.

That was because Republicans themselves blocked the sun from shining on the health care sign-up issues.

When the GOP's Tea Party members forced the federal government shutdown last month, Capitol Hill, the media and most Americans focused instead on the government closure. Only after all of Uncle Sam's offices reopened on Oct. 17 did the health care enrollment issues captivate the general American consciousness.

Another shot for opponents: The latest misstep, the president's oversimplified "you can keep your health insurance if you like it" promise, now is playing out very messily for Obama and his fellow Democrats.

Democratic members of Congress who fear the insurance issue could cost them their jobs are freaking out. Meanwhile, Obama's repeated apologies and backtracking are irritating staunch supporters of the health care reform law.

Republican strategists don't want anything taking the spotlight off these Obamacare and Democratic troubles.

So they are urging Camp to hold off on taking his tax reform efforts public.

Time slipping away: Camp has complied ... so far.

But given that the Congressional working days available for the rest of the year are dwindling, he might decide to go ahead and put his tax reform ideas out there sooner than some of his Republican colleagues would like.

The Ways and Means chairman believes that his fellow lawmakers can multitask when it comes to key policy and political issues.

"You have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time," Camp told Politico. "You’ve got to do more than one issue. I mean, it is the Congress of the United States."

Given what we've seen from Congress of late, I'm not so sure of that, Chairman Camp.

You also might find these items of interest:

• Obamacare to blame for the 2014 tax filing season delay?
• Tax reform's chances are better than 50 percent say committee chairs
• Budget conference committee members named; can they finally do the job?