To a large extent politics is about how much money is raised by taxation, who will pay the taxes, and how the tax revenues will be spent. Obamacare is partially financed by taxes on households with high incomes. Repealing Obamacare would have increased the after tax income of rich households by 14%. That, of course, was one of the Republican motivations for repealing Obamacare. Large cuts in Medicaid, which is an important part of Obamacare, were used to pay for the tax cuts. In other words, Trump's "populist" healthcare plan was a form of reverse Robinhood. The poor recipients of Medicaid would have lost benefits so that the after tax income of the rich would increase by 14%. Actually, the Trump/Ryan plan would have cut federal spending on healthcare by more than the lost revenue from the rich. That places a constraint on the tax cuts, primarily for the rich, that will be proposed by the Trump Administration. If the tax cuts are greater than cuts in federal spending they will add to the federal budget deficit. The Senate can only pass a tax bill with a simple majority if it does not increase the federal budget deficit. Therefore, Democrats could defeat the bill by using the filibuster which can only be overcome if Democrats support the tax proposal.
Well before Donald Trump came into power, Paul Ryan has been a deficit hawk. Spending on entitlements like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is the largest part of the federal budget. Entitlement programs transfer income from the rich to households with lower incomes. Ryan can only cut taxes for the rich by cutting spending on entitlements. Donald Trump campaigned on a promise not to cut spending on popular entitlements. It will be interesting to see how Trump's promises hold out as he rolls out his tax proposal which will reduce federal revenue.
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