Aware that the comprehensive Obamacare repeal bill expected to pass the Senate in the coming days will invariably be vetoed by President Obama, lawmakers from both parties are exploring other ways to kill the Cadillac tax, one of the rare provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that has earned scorn from both the left and the right.
The plan now appears to be to include a repeal of the tax among a large package of tax cuts that Congressional leaders hope to pass by the end of the year. To be clear, that is not the same as the massive, end-of-the year spending bill Congress is scrambling to approve before the New Year.
While there has historically been support from conservative quarters for policy that subjects health benefits to the same taxes as other income and Jeb Bush’s own health care plan contains such a provision, Congressional Republicans are united in opposing the Cadillac tax. A number of Congressional Democratic leaders, along with both of the party’s leading presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, also support its repeal.
What is unknown is whether President Obama, who has been conspicuously silent on the issue in recent months, is willing to pick a fight over it.
“The fact that they’ve been silent, I think, is good news,” Rep. Frank Guinta, R-New Hampshire, told The Hill.
Democratic leaders also signaled to The Hill a desire for concessions from the president on the issue.
"I hope we can work something out and I don't know what it might be," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois. "We're waiting to hear from the White House if they're open."
The Cadillac tax has drawn the ire from a number of influential interest groups, including business associations and organized labor.
Businesses are hostile to any new tax, which they say has forced them to pare down benefits in anticipation of the 40 percent excise tax on health benefits worth more than $10,500 per person or $27,500 for a family. Unions, of course, don’t like seeing their members lose generous benefits that they worked hard to negotiate.
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