If ObamaCare rollout is the most recent example of U.S. Government (USG) incompetence, then is this what we should expect of FATCA?
I just read this article by Tina Brown of the progressive Daily Beast about the ObamaCare Cock-up. I thought it was the good metaphor (not perfect) for the predictable FATCA Cock-up. The only difference is FATCA is global. Americans don’t know it exists, so don’t know that a Cock-up is in process.
I don’t think I need to expand much on why what she says is generally true, other than to note the opening and closing paragraphs. You can draw your own parallels, as I did mine, but generally this rollout fits the bigger theme, that American government is culturally unable to do these BIG COMPLEX programs well.
The big announcement and lousy follow-through, the technical glitches no one can figure out—not only was the roll out mess utterly predictable, it’s also a sign of our cultural moment.
Obamacare is the wildly complex Rube Goldberg contraption it is because getting the legislation through Congress required so many political trade offs and so many unavoidable deals with so many vested interests. But that’s no excuse. Lost in the raucous cable noise are the voices of desperate people shut out yet again, this time by incompetence. And that’s tragic, not uncool. That’s obscene, not a juicy partisan spin for Ted Cruz. How ironic if Obama’s signature accomplishment becomes instead a metaphor for his presidency’s signature problem: big pronouncements and lousy follow-up, the curse of our times.
Governments have never learned the KISS Principle, and/or never devote the attention to detail necessary to make the complex work! They don’t know how to “sweat the small stuff”, and instead take on the hugely complex and expensive instead. And if you are a U.S. Person living abroad, the predictable Cock-up consequences will fall on you!
Absolutely. Mark Twain has summed it up very well.
Neither the US nor our own countries have adequately advised, or at all advised, ‘US Persons Abroad’ our risks.
Inadequate education from the US for decades, including changes in US tax law should be unacceptable.
Negotiations by our countries’ governments behind closed doors should be unacceptable.
No warning stickers for those who may have ‘US indicia’ on the ‘foreign registered accounts’ we are encouraged to save in should be unacceptable.
The lack of transparency afforded ordinary folk and families living outside the US who will be affected by the combination of FATCA and US Citizenship-Based Taxation should be unacceptable.
I think we have to admit that FATCA has been very effective in its outreach to educate US persons of their tax filing obligations, similar to what the Japanese general population was able to learn about the effects of high doses of radiation near the end of WW2 .
@MarkTwain…. #4. That sounds like Rumsfeld’s Unknown Unknowns! 🙂
When Ezra Klein, of the MSNBC arm of the White House political propaganda machine puts this headline up on Wonkblog of the Washington Post, you know it is a mess..
ObamaCare is in Defacto Shut down
@Bubblebustin…
You really should be tweeting. That made a good one! 🙂
https://twitter.com/FATCA_Fallout/status/393389838105198592
Oh yes, Rumsfeld’s “the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” line was a good one.
@Just Me.
Check out Ezra’s entry today on his Wonk blog.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/24/wonkbook-the-gops-obamacare-chutzpah/
He points out that the Republicans sabotaged the implementation.
I myself am sure things will work out. I worked for two national Canadian corporations who implemented computers in their companies. I was there on their start up and found many weeks of sitting in front of their computers at work and not being able to work…I learned to play Euchre on the first company..
I am happy to see that the USA will give many of their people there ACA when many many never had health care in their life.
Obama may be bad for doing FATCA but I am rooting for ACA to succeed..
My RW racist brother is smiling with glee listening to Hannity diss this ACA…
So glad I live in Canada as a citizen.
@Just Me
Okay, I might try my hand at tweeting again, I’m just not as great with condensing as you are 🙂
bubblebustin,
Your wit and your many “short” good comments here show that you are good at condensing! You give me a chuckle and good advice every day.
You are also a champion in your longer, well thought-out contributions!
94% of USG technological purchases fail. They approach web site purchase like they buy and build battleships…
http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/problems-with-aca-exchanges-highlight-government-i-t-obstacles/
Thank you Calgary, for that and putting a smile on MY face today (that is no easy feat these days, but I’m trying).
@Bubblebustin…
I agree with Calgary. You are very good, and 140 character condensement just takes practice.
Thanks Just Me. I have to figure that bit.ly think out – which you told me about during our phone tutorial, but I’ve completely forgotten about. I muddle through these things and eventually figure them out (sort of).
@Bubblebustin. It is easy… I can talk you through it, but first go to https://bitly.com/ and create an account.
After that, just copy and paste a link into the appropriate box and the bitly link will be created which you can copy and paste into a tweet.
2 side benefits…
1. You get instant feedback if a bitly link is already active on this web address, and how often it is being clicked on. If it is HOT, you see that it is resonating with others. It also lets you know if you are the first to create the link and launch it into the ethernet. It also date stamps it so you remember when you first saw and created the link.
2. Searchability. This is a better way to keep track of links you want to go back to, as it is searchable, and you can add your own searchable tags to make it easy to find a link. Ever since I started bitly, I have totally stopped creating favorites in my browser, as this is much better for finding something later.
Have fun. Once you start doing it, you might wonder why you haven’t been using it before now. 🙂
Again, thanks Just Me. I’ll give bitly a whirl when I return home later this afternoon.
@northernstar…
As far as Obamacare goes, time will tell. Ezra is an unabashed partisan, so keep that in mind. With all the talk about how good a deal ObamaCare is, “subsidies” are key word in the same sentence. And who pays for the subsidies? Nothing is free. It is adding a lot more debt (another trillion) on top of the 17 Trillion we just busted through, and no matter how good the intention, something has to give. Our entitlements are unsustainable, and of course, no one wants to give up anything. So, either everyone will have to start paying a lot more taxes, including those 47% who pay nothing, or we need to park a few aircraft carriers and mind our own business. I vote for the later…
@bubblebustin, re;
“I think we have to admit that FATCA has been very effective in its outreach to educate US persons of their tax filing obligations, similar to what the Japanese general population was able to learn about the effects of high doses of radiation near the end of WW2 .”
Yep, the IRS and GAO and Treasury definition of ‘educate’ is to shoot us first, and then tell the wounded what the rules were as we lie bleeding.
“Ready, shoot, aim”
The perfect picture to describe ObamaCare help line… 🙂
http://c2.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/styles/nro_media_large_splash/public/contact_15.jpg?itok=gW9ViyF1
@Just Me…I loved Lilly in that role. I never missed Laugh In…
So much for the good halcyon days. 1968 – 73 but they weren’t really were they?
I found this in NYT and found it quite informative.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/25/opinion/getting-to-the-bottom-of-healthcaregovs-flop.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&wpisrc=nl_wonk&_r=0&pagewanted=print.
@ ALL
I wonder if the FATCA software program will work as well. 🙂
northernstar,
We can only hope the FATCA software will ‘work as well’ as that for the Affordable Care Act, both to be administered by the IRS.
The potential fraud and identity theft that will come with both programs, the loss of privacy of financial information with FATCA and CBT, and the the loss of privacy of medical information with ACA should concern everyone, everywhere — shouldn’t it? All this information to be stored with the NSA? The combination of Canadian FINTRAC and FATCA — will some of the information on those first-class Canadians get passed on to the US IRS as well, directly or through another process?
Will this 1st class Canadians’ FINTRAC information inadvertently go to the US along with that of the 2nd class Canadians, those with a ‘US indicia’?
@Northern Star…
Thanks for that NYTimes story. It corresponds to the NPR story about how UK dealt with similar government tech failures…
I posted that comment here..
As far as FATCA software, I think you can take that 55 contractors making this Obama Camel will be multiplied by a 100, and then there are thousands of 3rd party vendors with their hands on the data transmission. Except a Cock Up of monumental proportions, but will be totally ignored by the media, just like the silence on FATCA to date in U.S. mainstream media.
@calgary411
Thanks for the FinTrac story. I think governments are perfectly happy to have each other spy on all their citizens financial data. They only see a revenue upside for them for getting info more more taxes. Thus, no complaints….. (privacy?… just a pesky concern of the fringe)
What worries me is the requirement for FBARs for 2013 to be submitted online. (Don’t know how difficult it will be to be exempted from the requirement.) I don’t feel comfortable sending my bank account numbers, SSN . home address and DOB over the web. Also what if the system screws up and they lose the info, how can I prove I filed?
@ screen
It worries a lot of us. As soon as my husband gets his CLN he will file his final FBAR and then likely get his bank account numbers changed. Nobody wants that kind of information to be out there and vulnerable. I honestly don’t know how some people in faraway places without internet access will be able to file electronically. The IRS is so blatantly oblivious to such problems.