Conservative groups ask Senate to repeal ObamaCare taxes

Conservative groups are demanding the Senate repeal all ObamaCare taxes in its healthcare reform bill.

In a letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), 45 groups, led by Americans for Tax Reform, called on the Senate to repeal nearly 20 taxes created under ObamaCare. 

“Recent media reports suggest that the Senate may be wavering on repeal of these taxes. This would be a mistake,” the letter reads. 

{mosads}Some GOP senators have expressed support for keeping some ObamaCare taxes to pay for their new healthcare bill as they negotiate a plan they will eventually merge with the House-passed measure. 

“Some taxes will probably stay in. We still need to have some way to fund whatever is going to happen,” Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) told The Washington Post last week. 

That decision could anger conservatives, whose support is crucial to passing a bill through the House. Democrats are unlikely to aid the GOP in its push to repeal former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law. 

The conservative groups say keeping the taxes would “deprive taxpayers of relief in order to pay for higher spending.” 

The House-passed American Healthcare Act would eliminate the health insurance tax on insurers and the Medicare surtax on wages for high earners. 

The Senate will be writing its own healthcare bill, however. The GOP is working off of an undisclosed draft of the healthcare bill, and it’s unclear what taxes it may repeal and which ones it will keep. 

Leaders have said they hope to have a vote by the August recess.