Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said House Republicans are fully engrossed in overhauling how Americans get health insurance and are on track to have a bill ready by March.
“We’re in substantive discussions with our members,” Brady said Monday, dismissing rumors that Republicans are stalled in their quest to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “Now we’re really filling in the details, asking for the scores and estimates. This is a very substantive phase right now and we’re still on track.”
Brady also cautioned against putting too much stock in draft legislation that leaked Friday.
“Look, that draft is several weeks old,” he said. “We continue to make a lot of adjustments and changes, so I wouldn’t go a whole lot on that.”
He said his panel is making headway on a rewrite of the tax code, which will include a border adjustment tax.
“We continue to lay out our ideas,” he said. “We’re updating our drafts on almost a daily basis so it’s a little like turning a Rubik’s Cube.”
A controversial proposal to impose a 20 percent tax on imports while exempting exports from any tax will absolutely be part of the GOP’s reform package, he said.
“We’re not going to continue with a tax code that favors foreign products over American products and chases our jobs overseas,” he said.
“These provisions are bold. I think we’re all on the same page,” he said about congressional Republicans and the White House.
