By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--April 13, 2017
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President Trump is again reshuffling his congressional agenda, saying Congress should first pass a repeal of the Affordable Care Act before measures such as an overhaul of the tax code can be considered. The reversal comes just weeks after Trump said he was abandoning the health-care repeal effort following a nasty split between Republicans on how to proceed. He wanted to pivot immediately to an overhaul of the tax code, but lawmakers and advisers have convinced him that another effort is needed to repeal the health-care law, which was one of his top campaign promises. Trump explained his new strategy during a Wednesday interview with Fox Business, though he left open the possibility that he would shift gears again. “Health care is going to happen at some point,” Trump said. “Now, if it doesn’t happen fast enough, I’ll start the taxes. But the tax reform and the tax cuts are better if I can do health care first.”
The new approach reflects a harsh political reality: Congressional budget rules make it much easier to pass a broad overhaul of the tax code once the roughly $1 trillion in taxes that are in the Affordable Care Act have already been repealed. So if the health-care law is repealed and replaced, the tax overhaul becomes politically easier. Because overhauling the tax code is so popular among Republicans, he could lure them into compromising on the health-care package to pave the way for a vote on tax cuts before the 2018 midterm elections.Of course, the Washington Post's report on this emphasizes that Trump appears to be changing his legislative priorities, and portrays this as evidence of a president who can't make up his mind or doesn't know what he's doing. I think all this is calculated. Even when Trump says he's open to shifting again, it's yet another message to the Freedom Caucus that if they derail ObamaCare repeal and replace on more time, they'll ruin tax reform too because it's almost impossible to do the one in a satisfactory manner unless you do the other. In other words, for all the problems you left to be solved . . . thanks Obama!
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