WhatFinger


Which makes perfect sense because taxes make up the bulk of ObamaCare

Trump to Congress: First repeal ObamaCare, then we'll tackle taxes



It really ticked me off at the time, but the more I think about it, the more I think the talk about just moving on to tax reform after initial AHCA failure was probably a gambit by Trump and Ryan to make the Freedom Caucus understand: Look fellas, if we're just going to let ObamaCare stay as is, then the tax reform you want isn't going to be the tax reform you'll get. Because how could it be? ObamaCare itself is so heavy-laden with taxes, it's all but impossible to do a real reform of the tax code if you simply leave all those taxes in place. The Freedom Caucus considered the AHCA not perfect enough, but one thing it did was repeal all ObamaCare taxes, which would have very nicely set the stage for dealing with the rest of the tax code. As such, it never made sense to simply skip it and move on to tax reform, and it's clear now that Trump has no intention of doing so:
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.”

Support Canada Free Press


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overhaul of the tax code once the roughly $1 trillion in taxes that are in the Affordable Care Act have already been repealed. So if the health-care law is repealed and replaced, the tax overhaul becomes politically easier.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!

Without getting ObamaCare and all its taxes repealed, the GOP will find it's not so easy to solve a lot of the nation's other problems either

It remains to be seen, of course, if the GOP can actually get repeal-and-replace done this time. Sometimes we hear encouraging things, but during the first round of negotiations it was very difficult to define the markers by which people would agree to give their support. The markers were constantly changing, and it seemed an awful lot of people were simply looking for an excuse to vote no. If that doesn't change, we're not going to get a bill that can pass and ObamaCare will stay in place. It's hard to imagine the House Freedom Caucus really wants that, but some people would rather complain about what they hate then replace it with something better and be responsible for the results. At least this time they're taking their time and making sure they've got a deal before scheduling a vote. Being in such a rush the first time around made no sense, although I suppose they were just assuming the votes in the House would be a gimme, and that the Senate would be where the real hard work would happen. That was always a miscalculation, and if the result of the first-round failure is a better bill, then all's well that end's well. But it had better end well, because without getting ObamaCare and all its taxes repealed, the GOP will find it's not so easy to solve a lot of the nation's other problems either. And that only starts with taxes.


View Comments

Dan Calabrese -- Bio and Archives

Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

Follow all of Dan’s work, including his series of Christian spiritual warfare novels, by liking his page on Facebook.


Sponsored