Thune: Repealing Obamacare’s Individual mandate as part of tax reform is germane…. because it’s “a tax collected by the IRS.”

South Dakota’s senior US Senator John Thune spoke yesterday about how Republicans are including Obamacare’s individual mandate repeal in the tax reform package….. well, because it’s a tax:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Tuesday that the Senate tax bill will include language to repeal ObamaCare’s individual mandate, which could make it tougher for moderate Republicans to support.

Conservatives led by GOP Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Tom Cotton (Ark.) pushed hard to include the provision, which would eliminate the federal penalty on people who do not buy health insurance. President Trump has also pushed for the provision to be part of the tax bill.

and…

Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the Senate’s No. 3 Republican, told reporters there has been a whip count and he is confident Republicans can pass a tax bill that includes a measure to repeal the mandate.

Thune said a compromise bill negotiated by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), aimed at stabilizing ObamaCare markets, would be brought up separately. That bill funds key payments to insurers for two years in exchange for more flexibility for states to change ObamaCare rules.

and…

Thune said that repealing the individual mandate would be germane.

“My understanding is the individual mandate is a tax collected by the IRS,” he said.

Thune also said the Alexander-Murray bill would be brought up separately, while the bill’s GOP sponsor, Alexander, said that his legislation to temporarily stabilize the ObamaCare insurance marketplace “seems to be an indispensable companion to repeal of the individual mandate.”

Read it here.

21 thoughts on “Thune: Repealing Obamacare’s Individual mandate as part of tax reform is germane…. because it’s “a tax collected by the IRS.””

  1. Yep, and the Senator got that idea from Chief Justice Roberts, who claimed that ObamaCare was constitutional because it was a federal tax that the Constitution granted the Congress authority to enact…. So if you get rid of the tax, is it constitutional in Roberts’ mind?…… I see where you guys are going with this…. But if you prevail, wasn’t Senator Rounds recent work to shore up ObamaCare with Democrats to no avail?

  2. Cut corporate taxes and pay for it by sacrificing the healthcare of 13 million people and adding another $1.5 trillion to the deficit.

    What’s not to love?

    1. The individual mandate tax is paid by the people who don’t have health insurance. All they are “losing” is the fine they were paying to the IRS. They aren’t losing health insurance, they never bought it in the first place.

      1. When the CBO scored the mandate repeal, they found that without it, fewer healthy people would buy insurance. With less healthy people in the pool, the premiums rise. When that happens, fewer and fewer people can afford it, resulting a net loss of 13 million insured.

        …and apprently the $1.5 trillion added to the debt doesn’t bother you?

    1. …and just how much healthcare are those 13 million gonna get when they don’t have the insurance to cover it? Meanwhile, premiums increase 10%/yr for those of us who manage to keep our insurance.

  3. As a Republican it troubles me to no end that Republicans in congress have given up any pretense of working to balance the budget. The new Republican goal is to add $1.5 trillion to the national debt. Have party leaders gone completely insane? As I see it it’s time to clean house and senate in Washington DC. Vote every last one of them out of office, Republicans and Democrats alike.

      1. I am being real. If it doesn’t pay to be middle class, people will get out of the middle class. They will either work more to move up or they will work less to move down. They will alter their behavior to get the best deal they can. One of the reasons the middle class has been shrinking is that women with children discover they have higher standards of living if they stay single and qualify for public assistance. The decision to earn less money is quite deliberate. I worked with a lot of these people: they have it down to exactly how many hours they can work per week before they lose benefits. And no matter how much you beg them to cover an extra shift, they won’t do it

    1. Wrong answer, Anne. Unless we can see President Trump’s tax returns, we’ll have to assume that he wants this tax cut for the super rich to increase his personal wealth. We know the tax breaks for everyone else are minimal and temporary. It looks for all the world like robbing the people to help the rich. If Democrats did this you all would be beside yourselves with criticism. That’s called being a darned hypocrite.

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  5. Anonymous 12:19 said “Unless we can see President Trump’s tax returns, we’ll have to assume that he wants this tax cut for the super rich to increase his personal wealth.” Really?

    So we can assume every action of President Obama was for himself and his buddies? What was just said is so arrogantly presumptious one can discern motive from the LACK of evidence. It really goes beyond the pale and violates a myriad of rules of logic and intellectual discernment. Frankly, it is an idiotic statement by definition.

    Anonymous 12:19 said: “If Democrats did this you all would be beside yourselves with criticism.” There you go again trying to guess the minds of another person. Do you hear voices in your head too? Now, this idiocy is getting pretty creepy.

    Anonymous 12:19 said: “That’s called being a darned hypocrite.” Actually, it would not be hypocritical. It would be idiotic, insane and creepy if a Republican did it. But, Anonymous 12:19 actually did it.

    1. Troy. If the tax breaks help the super rich and Don Trump is super rich the tax breaks help him. If there’s something in his taxes we don’t know about, like massive amounts of money given to charity or no income then I’m wrong. But as it stands he’s gonna rake it in big time and the middle class will get little.
      PS … Don’t call me an idiot. Don’t call people names. What’s wrong with you?

  6. What you said was idiotic and it is because asserted his motive was to benefit himself and it was central to your statement.

    What you said was idiotic because you dismiss the tax code as having any merits because you think it only benefits the rich because you simplistically think the only gain from tax reform is to people who pay the taxes.

    If what you say is idiotic, I’m doing you a favor to point it out so you can quit saying idiotic things lest someone think you an idiot which is what happens when your repeatedly say idiotic things.

    Finally, since you do have the sense to not associate your name with your idiotic statements, it gives ME reason to think you aren’t an idiot but willing to say dishonest and misleading things to serve your own selfish agenda (a view reinforced by the reality you think people only act out of their own self-interest).

  7. I stand by what I say. I don’t mince words. I don’t hide. I say what I think. Period.

    You are a coward, you say idiotic things, you say dishonest things. As a person, I don’t give you much credence or standing. I never called you a name. You are anonymous. I’ve only characterized what you have said for what it is: idiotic among other things. The main reason I respond to your posts is your statements embody the idiocy that is much of the public debate of issues.

    Regarding your other statement about where I live, are you a stalker and should I be calling the police?

Comments are closed.