The revenue from that tax was built into Obamacare to help pay for the subsidies given to those buying health plans in the marketplaces. Sens. Dean Heller (R.-Nev.) and Sherrod Brown (D.-Ohio) have introduced separate bills, S. 2045 and S. 2075, respectively, to cancel the tax. The bills are distinguished primarily by a “Sense of the Senate” provision in the Brown bill that supports making elimination of the tax “revenue neutral.” That would mean the lost revenue would have to be made up in some fashion.
Republicans are unlikely to support making up the revenue because it would be viewed as keeping Obamacare alive, which they oppose. But Republicans would need at least six Democratic votes in the Senate to override a certain Obama veto of the Heller bill. There are bipartisan House bills, as well.
January 2016
