GOP/HEALTHCARE/OBAMACARE(ACA)/TAXES: “Republicans acknowledge that the aggressive timeline they have set up for overhauling the tax code this fall leaves them little room for error.
There could be one problem with that: Obamacare isn’t going away.
President Donald Trump has dropped hints that he might stop the Affordable Care Act’s cost-sharing reduction payments, through which federal funds flow to insurance companies to keep down coverage costs for low-income people.
At the same time, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the health committee chairman, is working with Democrats on potential measures to shore up the health care law.
That’s left key Senate tax writers frustrated that there’s potentially another issue to take precious time away from their tax reform efforts. Senators left Washington on Thursday for a monthlong recess and will return to a September already overloaded with legislative deadlines. With key Trump administration officials and some congressional leaders having said they want to get a tax revamp signed into law this year, tax writers believe they’ll need to make serious progress starting next month.
‘We’re not going back to health care. We’re in tax now. As far as I’m concerned, they shot their wad on health care and that’s the way it is. I’m sick of it,’ Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said Wednesday, a day before he outlined his committee’s agenda for the fall.”
-Bernie Becker and Aaron Lorenzo, “Tax writers see peril in Trump’s Obamacare persistence,” Politico, Aug. 7, 2017 05:10am