- April 18, 2024
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The U.S. House of Representatives will pass tax reform in the next session, predicts U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, but if the Senate's failure to repeal Obamacare is any indication, tax reform may not succeed in the Senate, either.
“After watching how they handled health care, I just don’t have a lot of confidence that they’re gonna be able to get that across the finish line,” DeSantis said.
The District 6 congressman addressed a crowd full of city officials and business leaders from Volusia County during the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Eggs & Issues event on Thursday, Aug. 10.
To see the repeal of Obamacare fail in the Senate in July "was a real big disappointment,” he said.
He said many politicians promised to repeal it when they were running for office, but then once in office decided to go a different direction — something he believes voters can’t stand.
DeSantis is focused on the affordability of health care. He said part of the problem with Obamacare was that it’s promoted “adverse selection” in insurance markets, causing premiums and deductibles to rise as well as some people dropping out of health insurance due to the cost.
DeSantis said the Senate is currently working on a proposal to give block grants to states for health care.
“When you do it in Washington, it’s hard to fix it because you have to do one fix for everything,” DeSantis said. “So if the states could actually deal with it based on their local conditions, I think they’d be able to fashion markets that were sustainable.”
Health care and tax reform directly impact each other, DeSantis said. He worked to remove a 20% border adjustment tax, proposed by Speaker Paul Ryan, which DeSantis said would’ve hurt blue collar workers as well as manufacturers.
“I was very vocal as much as I could be saying, ‘Take this out,’ so that we could do things that unify at least the Republicans and then we have a better chance to succeed,” DeSantis said.
Following their August recess, Congress will be back on Sept. 5.
