27 02 2017

US Tax Reform Only After Obamacare Repeal: Trump

US President Donald Trump said legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its taxes will need to be passed in the US Congress before a tax reform bill can be presented.

In a budget meeting on February 22, Trump confirmed that healthcare reform "is moving along nicely. It's being put into final forms. … Sometime during the month of March, maybe mid-to-early March, we will be submitting something that I think people will be very impressed by."

Legislation passed by the House of Representatives on January 13 officially set the ACA repeal process in motion as part of the budgetary process. As confirmed by the President during the budget meeting, "before we do the tax [reform] - which is actually very well finalized - we can't submit it until the healthcare [bill], statutorily or otherwise."

On February 16, House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R - Texas) said that the focus of ACA reform was "on repealing the taxes, the penalties for the mandates, and the subsidies."