Some Democrats were reluctant to join Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in opposing a bipartisan Obamacare stabilization deal if Republicans repeal the law’s individual mandate penalties in their tax reform legislation.
Democrats were furious that the GOP included the repeal in the tax bill, but several didn’t outright oppose the deal brokered by Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash. Schumer said the conference would oppose the deal, which has had the support of all Democrats, if the GOP moves forward.
Murray on Wednesday brushed off a question on whether she would reject the deal she created with Alexander. She instead focused on the problems repealing the individual mandate would create for insurance markets and how the deal won’t help with that.
“The Alexander-Murray bill does not fix the problems that they are creating with their tax proposal,” she said. Repealing the mandate “means insurance premiums go up 10 percent more and 13 million people lose coverage.”
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said that repealing the mandate, which forces everyone to have insurance or pay a penalty, would cause 13 million people to forego insurance coverage. It would save $338 billion over the next decade that Republicans aim to use to fund tax cuts.
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon said he strongly opposes the new version of the GOP tax reform bill but didn’t say if it would lead to his opposition of Alexander-Murray. Wyden is the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, which is marking up the tax bill.
Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., also wouldn’t say if he is committed to opposing the bipartisan deal if the repeal is included.
“I’ve always believed we should try to make bipartisanship work,” he said.
Alexander didn’t seem too concerned about Schumer’s ultimatum.
“There is probably a lot in the tax bill that Sen. Schumer doesn’t like,” he said. “I don’t think that has anything to do with the Alexander-Murray bill, which is a carefully considered, bipartisan proposal to lower rates, avoid chaos that every Democrat has said they are going to support.”
The deal would fund Obamacare cost-sharing reduction payments to insurers for two years. In exchange, the bill gives states more flexibility to avoid Obamacare regulations for insurers.
Legislation released last month by Alexander and Murray has 12 Republican co-sponsors and the support of every Democrat. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not brought it up for a vote because of opposition from President Trump and House Republicans.
GOP Senate leadership offered on Tuesday to bring up Alexander-Murray as a separate piece of legislation to help ease centrist concerns about adding mandate repeal to the bill. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the second-ranking GOP senator, told the Washington Examiner Tuesday that the bill likely would be rolled in to an end-of-year spending deal.
It’s not clear if Schumer’s threat will gain traction in the Democratic conference.
Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware said he hadn’t heard of Schumer’s threat but that tax reform should be bipartisan like the Alexander-Murray bill.
But Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., wasn’t pleased the GOP was going to couple Alexander-Murray with tax reform.
“I want to find a path to move our short-term stabilization bipartisan package through, but certainly not on something that does so much damage to America’s healthcare system,” she said.
