President Trump has been pushing both the Senate and House to pass bold tax reform packages, but each iteration of their plans have ruffled feathers in one camp or another, risking any chance of passage.
But now the Senate has devised a way both to help fund tax cuts and make good on their pledge to kill Obamacare.
Yesterday Senate GOP caucus members publicly announced that they’re going to add a repeal of the Obamacare mandate into their package.
The move will essentially gut Obamacare in that there would no longer be a legal requirement for Americans without insurance to comply with the law.
It also would mean Congress is no longer on the hook to subsidize Obamacare if it’s not required.
It’s a win-win.
The only question is why it took so long to put the idea into action.
Here’s more from Politico…
Republicans are adding repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate to the latest version of their tax bill, according to several GOP senators, with several key swing votes saying they’re open to the idea.
Finance Committee Republicans decided to include repeal language in the package. The legislation was discussed at a closed-door party lunch meeting Tuesday and several Republican senators said no one spoke out publicly against repealing the mandate.
John Thune (R-S.D.) said adding mandate repeal could allow Republicans to include more middle-class tax relief in the tax bill, and that he was confident it could pass the Senate. The GOP views repealing the mandate as both a down payment on its campaign pledge to undo Obamacare and a source of revenue: Repeal would generate $338 billion to help pay for tax reform.
“It’s been whipped,” said Thune, a member of GOP leadership, adding it’s an idea that “we’ve been looking at for some time as a potential solution for some of the challenges that we’re facing in trying to make the bill do the things we’re trying to accomplish.”
President Donald Trump has been urging congressional Republicans to include mandate repeal in the tax package.
