Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney on Sunday said the White House is all right with taking a provision to repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate out of Senate Republicans’ tax bill if the provision is “an impediment” to its passage.
“If we can repeal part of Obamacare as part of a tax bill, and have a tax bill that is still a good tax bill that can pass, that’s great,” Mulvaney said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Mulvaney said that if the provision “becomes an impediment to getting the best tax bill we can, then we’re okay with taking it out.”
“So I think it’s up to the Senate and the House to sort of hammer out those details,” he said.
“As of now, do you think it’s an impediment?” Jake Tapper asked.
“I don’t, actually,” Mulvaney said.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), one of three senators who voted against the Senate’s previous unsuccessful effort to repeal Obamacare, on Sunday said she has not yet decided whether to vote against the tax bill that includes the repeal provision.
.@MickMulvaneyOMB to @jaketapper on #CNNSOTU : WH okay with taking Obamacare mandate repeal out of tax bill https://t.co/5d4NhXde0E
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) November 19, 2017
They really are so desperate to take from the poor and give to the rich they’ll sacrifice one of their dreams…for now.
So this is a choice between pass this hideous bill to placate their big donor overlords while destroying the underpinnings of healthcare and tax sanity in the process thereby losing swing voters and future elections or…
Vote against this monstrosity and displease their donor overlords thereby turning off the spigot and possibly losing future elections.
Republican’s have only their mendacity and cynical grasp for power to blame for this dilemma. If history is any guide, they’ll probably make the wrong choice.
The GOP tax bill is not a good tax bill without the individual mandate repeal so you fail your own condition precedent. Unfortunately for the country, the fact that it is not a good tax bill in either scenario will not have any bearing on it being passed by the GOP Congress.
Trump will support any legislation, regardless of content, drafted by Republicans so long as it a) results in a “win” and b) doesn’t harm him financially. If it screws poor and middle-class people or people of color, so much the better. They’re all losers.
There’s another subtext here: that, once again, Trump will throw House & Senate GOP under the bus if it gets him a “win”. If they’re “open” to removing O’care repeal from the tax bill, that means they will.
Paul Ryan just messed his drawers. Mark my words.