Congressional Republicans Send Trump-Pence Tax Scam to White House

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 -- The Human Rights Campaign issued the following news release:

Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, reacted after Republicans in the House and Senate voted to approve legislation carefully crafted to undermine the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and other vital health care programs. Republican leadership rushed the partisan bill through both chambers of Congress in less than 24 hours and didn't receive a single vote from Democratic lawmakers.

"After nearly a year, the only significant legislation that Donald Trump and his supporters in Congress have managed to pass is a disastrous bill that directly threatens our health care and critical health programs," said JoDee Winterhof, HRC Senior Vice President for Policy and Political Affairs. "Shame on GOP leadership for celebrating a bill that will result in millions of Americans losing their health care and future cuts to programs critical to the LGBTQ community. HRC will continue to fight against the dangerous Trump-Pence agenda and voters will hold Trump's enablers accountable at the ballot box."

The bill approved today repeals the ACA's individual mandate that requires all Americans to have health insurance or pay a penalty. This provision was at the heart of the Trump-McConnell failed effort to repeal the ACA earlier this summer. Repealing the individual mandate could result in 13 million people leaving the insurance market, immediately causing insurance premiums to soar and leave millions priced out of access to healthcare.

When Congress last considered tax reform legislation 31 years ago, they had 30 days of public hearings over six months. Then House members worked together for 10 months to produce a bipartisan package with 26 days of markup in committee. This time around, Republican leadership has allowed for a handful of hearings, limited public input, and limited time to review the hundreds of pages of tax code changes.