Conservatives’ insistence on including barriers to having an abortion covered under the Trumpcare Tax Cut Bill may doom the bill to defeat, now that the Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that provision to be improper.
BY ALEXANDER BOLTON
The parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, has flagged language that would bar people from using new refundable tax credits for private insurance plans that cover abortion, according to Senate sources.
If Republicans are forced to strip the so-called Hyde language from the legislation, which essentially bars federal funds from being used to pay for abortions unless to save the life of a mother or in cases of rape and incest, it may doom the bill.
MacDonough said the language may violate ‘the Byrd Rule’ that governs what may be included in bills to be passed under the reconciliation rule, allowing passage by a bare majority.
The toughest requirement states that a provision cannot produce changes in government outlays or revenues that are merely incidental to the non-budgetary components of the provision.
In other words, a provision passed under reconciliation cannot be primarily oriented toward making policy change instead of impacting the budget. Arguably, attaching Hyde language to the refundable tax credits is designed more to shape abortion policy than affect how much money is spent to subsidize healthcare coverage.
If GOP leaders are forced to strip the Hyde language from the healthcare bill and cannot find an alternative way to seal off insurance tax credits or subsidies from abortion services, they would lose the support of anti-abortion rights groups, a devastating blow.
Lets hope their anti-abortion fever puts an end to this amoral attempt to sabotage our health care system to provide tax cuts for the richest Americans.