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Millions of Americans are ready to pay the price There will be a huge increase in health insurance premiums When the Covid-Era Tax Credit Expiring at the end of this year, republican Congress is considering whether to use the same partisan tactics they used this year on the unpopular One Big Beautiful Bill Act to force direct cash payments from the president. donald trumpLatest views on health care costs.
During an event in the Oval Office earlier this month, Trump answered a question about what he wanted from the GOP Congress. About upcoming deadlines Reiterating a line he started several weeks ago, pushing the idea of direct payments could, in his estimation, help Americans defray health care costs even if most people buy insurance not individually but as part of a larger group, whether through the Affordable Care Act exchange or through an employer.
He said, “I want all the money to go to the people and for people to buy their own health care. That would be incredible. They would do a lot of good. They would get better health care at a much lower cost.”
Now, with the midterm elections — and potential electoral disaster — looming over the Republican-led legislative branch, members are struggling over whether they’ll be able to put together the votes to turn Trump’s seat-of-the-pants, stream-of-consciousness musings into actual law.
according to politico, Several Republicans in both the House and Senate are discussing whether they could use the budget reconciliation process — a parliamentary maneuver that lets some spending bills bypass the filibuster and pass with a bare majority in the Senate — to advance a bill that would use tariff revenue to fund direct cash payments as a way to address the issue of spending. rising insurance costs,
Although Trump and his allies often claim that tariffs are paid by foreign countries as a type of entry fee for the privilege of selling their products in American markets, tariffs are actually taxes that are paid by American importers and passed on to consumers at higher prices for finished goods.
This means the GOP proposal would essentially give Americans their own money back for meager cash payments, which in all likelihood won’t cover the higher premiums they’ll have to pay once Congress allows the ACA to expire in seven days.
While the plan has generated some interest among rank-and-file Republicans, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, chairman of the House’s primary tax legislation-writing committee, is skeptical of any reconciliation bill actually passing through either chamber, much less both chambers.
“I don’t think there will ever be a path to another reconciliation,” said Smith, the Utah Republican.
Representative Mike Lawler, a moderate in the New York GOP who has supported the idea of simply increasing Obamacare subsidies rather than face the wrath of angry voters next November, reportedly said the reconciliation bill would “never” happen.
And a key Republican senator, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, poured cold water on the idea earlier this month.
Murkowski said, “I don’t want yet another one-sided, partisan reconciliation bill — I want us to legislate.” “Let’s be legislators here. Reconciliation, yes, it’s a tool for us, but it’s a partisan tool and look how divided we are right now. … That’s not the way to go.”
But the chairmen of the House and Senate budget committees, Republican Representative Jody Arrington of Texas and GOP Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, are more optimistic on the prospect. Arrington, who will retire from the House after next year, said he thinks it is “an important time to start” the reconciliation process, while Graham pointed out traffic light He would like to see a reconciliation bill focused on health care, immigration enforcement and military funding.
The Trump tariff waiver proposal has other hurdles it may struggle to overcome, particularly strict rules about what can be in a reconciliation bill.
Under the party-line process, only taxation and spending provisions can accomplish this under Section 313 of the Budget Act and Senate rules, which require “outside” provisions – policy changes unrelated to the budget – to bypass the upper chamber’s filibuster.
But that hasn’t stopped the GOP and some white House By pursuing the idea anyway.
Earlier this month, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy James Blair told Bloomberg News The White House would support legislation for a tariff “dividend” of about $2,000 per person in addition to any provisions related to health care in the reconciliation bill.
Representative August Pfluger of Texas, chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee group, has said he is on board and urged colleagues to “come together and unify around a policy that works.”
But Pfluger said the “trick” to doing that would be to first figure out what Trump wants and move forward with that.