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WASHINGTON — Republicans love cutting taxes, especially if they were authored by a president named Barack Obama. But as they push their wobbly effort to erase his health care overhaul, they're divided over whether to repeal the levies the law imposed to finance its expanded coverage for millions of Americans.
It's a trillion-dollar dilemma — actually closer to $1.1 trillion. That's the 10-year price tag the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office puts on revenue the government would lose if the law's taxes on wealthy people, the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and others were eliminated.
Republicans and President Trump have been edging away from their promise to quickly eliminate Obama's entire law. Still, annulling its taxes would be a partial victory and is irresistible for many GOP lawmakers and the conservative voters at the core of their support.
“We should do full repeal,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a leading House conservative. “And full repeal means not taking the taxes” from people.
Yet voiding those levies erases a mammoth war chest Republicans would love to have — and may well need — as they try replacing Obama's law. It's a major rift GOP leaders face as they try crafting a health care package that can pass Congress.
“These are sources of revenue you just can't discount,” said Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., a member of the Tuesday Group of GOP pragmatists. He said the money could help “create a soft landing and coverage for those who currently rely on Obamacare.”
Republicans know they'll need tons of cash, whatever they devise. The figure is unknown.
“Whatever we do in replacement is going to cost some money, and is there a way to generate money if we ditch all the Obamacare tax revenues or not? That's where we haven't achieved consensus,” said No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Cornyn of Texas, who supports erasing the levies.
Killing the taxes leads Republicans to other tough decisions.
If the taxes are repealed and they need money for their replacement plan, do they pay for it with higher federal deficits? Do they deeply cut Medicaid, which provides health care for low-income people, or carve savings from Medicare, which serves the elderly? Might they raise other taxes, something that's been anathema to Republicans for decades?
“There's going to be a temptation for policymakers to take the easy way out” and simply let deficits rise, said Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. She said for Republicans promising for decades to improve the nation's fiscal health, that choice “is going to look hypocritical.”
The GOP has different options for preserving revenues, like phasing in repeals of taxes or eliminating some while retaining others. Participants say Obama's taxes on medical device makers and on insurance and pharmaceutical companies seem among the likeliest to go.
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