Republicans 'dropped the ball' by failing to repeal ObamaCare mandate

Businesses are fighting the Internal Revenue Service’s decision to enforce ObamaCare’s employer mandate, which stipulates that companies with 50 or more employees must provide health care or pay a penalty.

But Judge Andrew Napolitano blames Republicans for failing to entirely repeal the mandate when passing their long-awaited tax overhaul plan -- which will roll back the ObamaCare individual mandate starting in 2019 -- at the end of 2017.

“The tax cut could have removed the IRS’s authority to fine for failure to comply with the employer mandate. It could have removed the employer mandate all together,” Napolitano told FOX Business’ Stuart Varney. “But those courageous Republicans who are going to shrink the government simply dropped the ball.”

President Trump long promised that when the individual mandate was repealed, the overall repeal of ObamaCare would follow. Despite that, large portions of President Obama’s health care reform remain intact.

These corporations received a massive tax cut, thanks to the GOP, which slashed the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%. But those savings are likely to go back to the IRS, thanks to the ObamaCare mandate, Napolitano said.

“The president can stop this with a phone call. The president actually, before this happened, told the IRS ‘I really believe the individual mandates will be gone, don’t collect the fines on it.’ First time in modern American history that the President of the United States has said to the IRS ‘don’t collect a lawful tax.’ He could do the same thing with this corporate tax with a phone call this afternoon,” Napolitano said.