dr. brannon. thank you very much for your references to the fiscal commission and the group of six and your references to the need for tax reform. i used to be a tax commissioner. i used to be chairman of the multistate tax commission. and for anybody that's familiar with the tax code, as i know you are, we are way past time to fundamentally reform it. ifs -- it is an abomination. if you are going to sit down and design a tax code that would have the worst disincentives to the very things we all want to see happen, savings investment, economic growth, you'd be hard pressed to do a worse job. i'm going to defer my questioning time to senator cardin and then we'll go to senator sessions and proside with other members. i'll reserve my time. senator cardin. >> mr. chairman, thank you very much. let me thank all three of our witnesses. i found the testimony to be very persuasive that if we had not taken action, decisive action, that today we would be faced with unfloiment rates that are much higher. an

dr. brannon has talked a lot about this. i would like to submit a copy of his article open but the housing blues" for the record. -- "a cure for the houseiing blues" for the record. >> it will be admitted. >> thank you. could you talk about the value of allowing a homeowner in bankruptcy to sit down with the lender and negotiate a new principal balance for what they owe in the light of, first of all, if they walk away from it, the bank is going to be written down on what in the foreclosure process anyway. they would get a better number in an organized bankruptcy than they would by going through the foreclosure process, with the destruction of the property itself and the collateral and so forth. >> as it stands, my father is a bankruptcy lawyer in peoria, illinois. i am well aware the you were in charge of bankruptcy. my father would love to run many reforms by you. i agree with you in the sense -- this is what i told senator mulally. -- senator merkley. in a situation where someone those $500,000 on a home worth three under

dr. brannon, i agree with you. i do not think government can positively affect the with its actions. do is get out of the way. the questions i want to ask you -- first of all, thanks for your testimony. the additional deficit risk that nobody is really talking about -- i worked in terms of the estimates on the true cost of the health care law. one of you talked about the uncertainty around the health care law. cbo estimated only 1 million people will lose their employer- sponsored care, but mckinsey study found 30% to 50% of employers right now are planning on dropping coverage. 180 million americans get their health insurance through employer-sponsored care. half of them lose their health care, the cost of obamacare will not be $95 billion. it will be over $400 billion. if everyone loses it, it will be close to $1 trillion. i like your comments in terms of that level of risk and your economic forecast. dr. prakken. >> thanks for such an easy question. >> not a problem. >> i have no way of quantifying for the united states economy the health care at pier the name of our firm is macro

dr. brannon, for your references to the fiscal commission and the group of six and your references to thesed to be a tax commissioner, used to the chair of the multi-state tax commission. for anyone intimately familiar with the tax code, as i know you are, we are way past time to fundamentally reform it. it is an abomination. if you were going to sit down and design a tax code that would have the worst disincentives to the very things we all want to see happen -- savings, investment, economic growth -- you would be hard pressed to do a worse job. i am going to defer my question in time. then we will go to senator sessions and proceed with other members. i will reserve my time. >> mr. chairman, thank you very much, and let me thank all three of our witnesses. i found the testimony to be very persuasive, that we had not taken action -- decisive action -- that today, we would be faced with unemployment rates that are much higher and options that are much fewer. i also take away from this, mr. chairman, from the testimony that has been given, that we do not extend the unemployment insurance p

dr. brennan -- brannon has talked a lot about this. i would like to submit a copy of his article open but the housing blues" for the record. >> it will be admitted. >> thank you. could you talk about the value of allowing a homeowner in bankruptcy to sit down with the lender and negotiate a new principal balance for what they owe in the light of, first of all, if they walk away from it, the bank is going to be written down on what in the foreclosure process anyway. they would get a better number in an organized bankruptcy than they would by going through the foreclosure process, with the description of the -- destruction of the property itself and the collateral and so forth. >> as it stands, my father is a bankruptcy lawyer in peoria, illinois. i am well aware the you were in charge of bankruptcy. my father would love to run many reforms by you. i agree with you in the sense -- this is what i told senator mulally. in a situation where someone those $500,000 on a home worth three under thousand dollars, the mortgage lender is not going