GOP senators mull scrapping high-earner tax cuts, allowing no-frills plans in health-care revamp

Sen. Mitch McConnell and Sen. John Cornyn.
(Image credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

Senators left Washington on Thursday night for a 10-day break without voting on the Senate Republican health-care bill, and after a day of meetings and negotiations and new Congressional Budget Office numbers, Senate Republicans still did not have the pieces in place for a plan that could get 50 of their 52 votes, according to all accounts. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who wrote most of the bill behind closed doors, and the White House have already agreed to increase the bill's funding for the U.S. opioid addiction problem, to $45 billion from $2 billion, to win the votes of senators from hard-hit states, but Senate Republicans are seriously considering at least two other ideas, one to mollify conservatives and the other to win over more moderate holdouts.

To win over moderates like Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Republicans are talking about keeping some of the Affordable Care Act's tax increases for some wealthier Americans, most notably the 3.8 percent tax on capital gains and other investment income for households making more than $250,000 a year, and putting that retained revenue toward helping poorer Americans afford insurance or reduce the federal deficit. According to the CBO, repealing that tax, as McConnell's draft bill does, would cost $172 billion over 10 years.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.