Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced that the Senate’s tax bill will have language to repeal the individual mandate in Obamacare. From The Hill:
“We’re optimistic that inserting the individual mandate repeal would be helpful and that’s obviously the view of the Senate Finance Committee Republicans as well,” McConnell said.It will raise an estimated $300 billion to $400 billion over the next year that could be used to pay for lowering individual and business tax rates even further.
The GOP has only a two seat majority in the Senate, which has proven to be not enough on a few occasions concerning Obamacare. Both Obamacare repeal attempts this year have failed because at least three GOP senators decided to vote no.
One of those senators is Rand Paul from Kentucky. He joined forces with Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) to attack this provision into the bill. From The Hill:
“I’m pleased the Senate Finance Committee has accepted my proposal to repeal the Obamacare individual mandate in the tax legislation,” Cotton said in a statement.”Repealing the mandate pays for more tax cuts for working families and protects them from being fined by the IRS for not being able to afford insurance that Obamacare made unaffordable in the first place. I urge the House to include the mandate repeal in their tax legislation.”
That means if Paul is on board, the Senate can only lose two votes. If it’s set at 50-50 then Vice President Mike Pence will cast a tie breaking vote.
Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the #3 Republican in the Senate, claims that “there has been a whip count and he is confident Republicans can pass a tax bill that includes a measure to repeal the mandate.”
If this is true, that means the other senators who have voted against Obamacare repeal attempts have agreed to vote for the tax bill with the mandate repeal: John McCain (R-AZ), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Susan Collins (R-ME).
Thune is happy about the possibility, saying that the ability to make more tax cuts will give Congress “more of an opportunity to really distribute the relief to those middle-income cohorts who could really benefit from it.” Paul revealed that’s how he wants to handle the money saved from the repeal.
McConnell said that the repeal will allow the corporate tax rate to remain low permanently.
Of course Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) babbled on about how the GOP once again sides with the rich and cannot wait to raise people’s premiums and kick 13 million people off insurance plans. That’s how many people the CBO has predicted will “lose” insurance without the mandate.
What Schumer and the hyperactive left forget to mention is that A LOT of those people who will “lose” their insurance will CHOOSE to lose their insurance because they don’t want it.
Also, if insurance companies don’t have HAVE to provide insurance to everyone that could help premiums go down because that will be less coverage. But scare tactics, right? Both sides are so good at that!
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