Top aides to House Appropriations health subcommittee Chair Denny Rehberg (R-MT) met privately on Tuesday (Nov. 8) with a lobbyist from Grover Norquist's influential anti-tax group and others to defend the congressman's bill axing health reform law subsidies, seeking to assuage concerns that Rehberg's measure may amount to a net tax increase, Inside Health Policy has learned. After the meeting, Rehberg forcefully derided the contention.
The law's subsidies for low-income Americans are provided in part through the tax code, and Norquist's Americans For Tax Reform (ATR) views cutting tax credits as a form of raising taxes, which all but a handful of congressional Republicans have signed his pledge not to do.
Rehberg's Deputy Chief of Staff Kristin Smith and Senior Policy Adviser Jack Ramirez made their case on Capitol Hill to conservative advocates including Ryan Ellis, ATR's tax policy director, and Bill Pascoe, executive vice president of Citizens For The Republic. The aides and advocates declined to discuss the details of the meeting, and Ellis said the group would not comment on the bill until it has been scored.
“That was an off the record meeting, so I'm not at liberty to discuss,” emailed Ellis, when contacted by IHP. “In general, ATR does not pre judge a bill without a score. There is no score from this bill.”
ATR and Smith had discussions Tuesday morning prior to the scheduled afternoon meeting in the Capitol, Inside Health Policy learned, where Ellis warned Smith that his initial read of the bill was that it may potentially amount to a tax increase. He said ATR would oppose it if that is the case.
Smith asked the Norquist activist to reserve his judgment until after the meeting, when the Rehberg staffers would have a chance to make their case.
Ellis rejoined that his concern was only based on an initial read and said ATR was open to reconsidering based on a score or an explanation. He assured Smith that the group won't make a final decision until it sees a score, adding that he simply wanted to raise the tax issue as a possible concern.
After the meeting, Rehberg derided the view that his bill could be viewed as a tax increase.
“Only in Washington, DC, can new spending programs be passed off as tax credits,” the Republican lawmaker told Inside Health Policy in a statement. “President Obama's health care bill isn’t about providing tax relief, and anyone who says otherwise simply isn't being intellectually honest. Providing tax relief means putting more money in the pockets of the hardworking taxpayer. Under President Obama's massive new entitlement program, the Treasury gives this money directly to the insurance company that is providing the insurance. That's government spending.”
“Some people will stop at nothing to hide the fact that President Obama’s health care law created two new massive government programs, and that by eliminating them we can take a huge step toward balancing the budget and meeting the Super Committee’s deficit reduction target,” Rehberg added.
Rehberg's bill -- H.R. 3243, the Common Sense Deficit Reduction Act of 2011 -- has yet to be scored by the Congressional Budget Office.
The meeting comes at a time when Republicans are being pilloried by Democrats -- and also recently by former GOP Sen. Alan Simpson (WY) -- as too beholden to Norquist in their unrelenting stance against tax increases.
In an Oct. 5 letter, Rehberg called on the deficit-cutting super committee to repeal the Affordable Care Act's health insurance premium subsidies and Medicaid expansion. On Oct. 24, he introduced a bill to do just that, which was the subject of the Tuesday meeting and which currently has 15 Republican co-sponsors. --Sahil Kapur (This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
