Health mandate added to tax debate
As Republican lawmakers worked toward a delicate compromise on a $1.5 trillion tax cut, President Trump threw himself back into the discussion Monday, suggesting that Republicans could slash taxes even further by repealing the health care law’s mandate that most people have health insurance.
After meetings in the Philippines, Trump took to Twitter to congratulate House and Senate Republicans for making progress on tax cut legislation during his 12-day trip through Asia. Then he pressed them to change course.
“Now, how about ending the unfair & highly unpopular Indiv Mandate in OCare & reducing taxes even further?” Trump said, referring to the health law’s mandate that people purchase health insurance. “Cut top rate to 35% w/all of the rest going to middle income cuts?”
Republicans have been navigating a challenging path in their effort to pass the most sweeping overhaul of the tax code in more than 30 years by the end of this year.
Lawmakers last month were considering making changes to 401(k) retirement accounts as a way to raise revenues before Trump quashed the idea on Twitter.
In recent weeks, Trump has called for including the repeal of the individual mandate in the tax bill. Doing so would save more than $300 billion over a decade and would allow Republicans to boast that they took a step forward in dismantling a law that continues to haunt them.
The Congressional Budget Office and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation estimate that repealing the mandate starting in 2019 would reduce federal budget deficits by $338 billion between 2018 and 2027 relative to CBO’s most recent baseline.
Though many Republicans in the House and the Senate have echoed Trump’s desire to repeal the mandate, they have been wary of injecting the treacherous politics of health care into the debate over taxes.
Trump’s latest suggestions come as the Senate Finance Committee began considering amendments, a process that should continue all week. The repeal of the individual mandate was not on the list of 355 amendments that the committee released Sunday night.