GOP Drops
Tax Cuts for Big Earners in Revised Health Bill, Sources Say, By Laura Litvan and Steven T. Dennis, 7/11/17
House bill included repeal of tax on
net investment income. Senate Republicans trying to win
over moderate holdouts
Senate Republican leaders dropped
provisions that would repeal two taxes on high earners in a revised draft of
their health-care bill sent to the Congressional Budget Office, according
to GOP senators.
Republican leaders are now planning to
retain Obamacare’s 3.8 percent tax on net investment income for people who
earn more than $200,000 and couples with incomes over $250,000, as well
as a 0.9 percent Medicare surtax on the same incomes.
Those two tax increases generate nearly
$231 billion in revenue over a decade, according to the Joint Committee on
Taxation. Leaving them in place could create a way to cover the costs of
expanded Medicaid coverage for the poor or other programs demanded by holdout
moderate Republicans.
“Obviously that’s a direction I think
that a lot of our members want to move, to keep some of those in place and use
the revenues to put into other places in the bill where it can make a
difference,” John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Senate Republican, said
Tuesday. The decision to explore changes was first reported by the Wall Street
Journal.
The reversal on tax cuts, aimed at
winning over moderate holdouts, comes amid an announcement Tuesday by Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he is delaying a planned summer recess by
two weeks, giving Republicans more time to pass a health-care bill.
McConnell told reporters that he plans
to release his revised bill on Thursday, with a new CBO estimate and an
important procedural vote coming next week.
But Republican Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina said Tuesday that he plans to release contours of an alternative
health bill this week and that he is seeking the support of governors and
senators of both parties. “I want to do the best I can, and I think the best we
can is not on the table right now,” Graham said.
A number of moderate Republicans had
recoiled from the bill after the CBO estimated that 22 million fewer
people would have insurance in a decade, and that premiums and deductibles for
millions of low-income people would soar.
Closed-Door Talks -
McConnell has been negotiating with his Republican colleagues over revisions
after more than a half-dozen of them objected to a plan last month that
combines tax cuts with deep reductions in health spending.
Although Republican leaders decided to
retain two of the Obamacare taxes, others would still be repealed in their
revised bill.
"The taxes that will be repealed
are all the taxes that have been driving up the cost of insurance," said
Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 4 Senate Republican.
Other changes under consideration
include revising Medicaid cuts and adding more spending to stabilize premium
costs in the individual insurance market, according to a GOP aide who requested
anonymity.
Republicans are waiting to hear back from
the CBO before deciding whether to include an amendment proposed by Republican
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.
Cruz wants to allow insurers to offer
cheap, bare-bones plans alongside those that meet the more comprehensive
coverage requirements of Obamacare. Critics in both parties say the proposal
would essentially put people with pre-existing conditions in the Obamacare
insurance pool and allow young, healthy people to buy cheaper plans in a
separate pool.
“It’s important to a number of our
conservative members who want to see that in a final product,” Thune said. “We
have other members who have a different point of view.” He added, “It’s
something we want to explore” to potentially give consumers more choices.
Republican leaders have said they want
to hold a vote before the recess, which has now been pushed into mid-August,
and are prepared to move on to other issues, including a tax-code rewrite, if
they can’t develop consensus around a proposed replacement to the 2010
Affordable Care Act.
Asked if GOP leadership will move
forward with the vote even if they lack the 50 senators needed to secure
passage of the legislation, Barrasso said, "I’m convinced that there’ll be
a vote next week to move to get on the bill."
If there were an imminent vote in the
Senate, House Republican leadership would keep their chamber in session into
the beginning of August, according to a GOP aide familiar with the plans.
However, if the Senate works further into August and manages to pass a
health-care bill, there would be intense pressure from the Trump administration
to bring House members back to Washington for another vote, according to the
aide.
For the bill to pass, and Republicans to
live up to their promise to eliminate President Barack Obama’s signature
domestic accomplishment, they can lose no more than two GOP votes from their
52-48 majority amid unanimous Democratic opposition.
Skeptical Republicans -
A number of Republicans have been pessimistic about the prospects in recent
days
Republican Senator Susan Collins of
Maine, who opposes McConnell’s earlier bill, said in an interview Monday that
she was heartened at the majority leader’s suggestion last week that
Republicans will have to work with Democrats on a scaled-back measure shoring
up Obamacare’s insurance exchanges if the GOP bill dies. She said she’s
concerned about the impact of proposed cuts to Medicaid under the broader plan.
"I believe we should not repeat the
mistake that President Obama made in passing major legislation with no support
from the other party," Collins said.
Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said
on “Fox News Sunday” that McConnell’s original plan is dead and that what
happens with the rewritten version remains to be seen. He put the odds of
passing a bill in July at “50-50.”
While moderates are balking at deep cuts
to Medicaid and to subsidies for individual market consumers, conservatives are
seeking looser regulations for such policies that are sold on Obamacare’s
exchanges.
Comments
Lindsey
Graham and Susan Collins are RINOs, who don’t want Obamacare completely
repealed. All Republicans need to do is to simply Repeal Obamacare in its
entirety and remove all regulations and taxes that were woven in to Obamacare.
They need to unleash the health insurance industry to offer whatever policies
they could sell.
Government
needs to announce that it will reduce its subsidies for healthcare by 5% each
year for 20 years. That will result in immediate action by providers to begin
to reduce their costs. Without this,
providers have no incentive to reduce healthcare costs.
30 of the
52 Republicans serving in the US Senate have FAILING GRADES on their low scores
on Conservative Review Scorecard. These
are all RINOs who campaign as conservatives, but vote with the Democrats. The
Senate is a Liberal cesspool.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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