BUDGET/HEALTHCARE/OBAMACARE(ACA)/TAXES/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s revived enthusiasm for tackling health-care legislation before tax policy has highlighted the complicated interplay between Republicans’ health-care overhaul and their planned tax bill.
Mr. Trump signaled last week that one of the reasons he has reprioritized health care is that he was relying on savings from the health bill to bolster the tax plan.
If the health plan is signed, ‘we get hundreds of millions of dollars in savings that goes into the taxes,’ said Mr. Trump said in an interview Wednesday [4-12-17]. ‘Could we do it without health care? Absolutely but it’s a cleaner package if we get health care done.’
The budget reality isn’t that straightforward. Budgetary savings from a health bill don’t get plowed into the tax bill, so the lack of a health bill wouldn’t necessarily change the tax-bill math. There is also no requirement that the health bill come first. But the two pieces of legislation are interrelated because the GOP health bill would eliminate discrete taxes created as part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, smoothing the process of passing a broader tax overhaul.”
-Richard Rubin, “Trump’s Renewed Focus on Health Bill Vexes GOP Tax Overhaul Strategy,” The Wall Street Journal online, April 16, 2017 11:30am