Levin on C-SPAN: Republicans “Fumbled” on Tax Reform

WASHINGTON – Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" this morning discussed tax reform and the Affordable Care Act. Below are excerpts of Representative Levin's remarks this morning. The entire segment is available here.

Levin on Tax Reform:

"First of all, on tax reform, it was clear from the beginning it had to be on a bipartisan basis. We started that way, Dave Camp and myself setting up working groups. But after that, essentially Dave Camp and the Republicans decided to go their own way and that isn't working. You cannot have tax reform without a bipartisan effort. … I think [tax reform] is on life support for this year. Dave Camp set a goal or a target -- 25% for individuals -- 25% for corporations, without indicating how in the world he would ever get there. The Joint Tax Committee said to get down to 28% for corporate, you had to abolish all of the provisions that related to manufacturing. In terms of the individual rate, to get down to 25%, you would have had to eliminate all of the tax policies, charitable contributions, the mortgage interest deduction, state and local taxes, and the provision for tax-free state and local bonds. You would've had to abolish all of them to get down to 25%. And Dave Camp and the Republicans never said how in the world they would ever get to 25%. It was essentially a slogan and now they are having trouble making that slogan a reality. In that respect, the ball was in their court and – talking about fumbling – they fumbled."

Levin on Ways and Means Committee Partisanship:

"In terms of the Ways and Means Committee and what the Republicans did I said [in a letter to Chairman Camp on Nov. 6 that] it went beyond what was the tradition within our committee. Because, for example, Dave Camp and the Republicans sent a subpoena to Marilyn Tavenner of CMS saying you must come this next week with the figures through the website and she said, the following week those will be produced. It was a misuse of subpoena power and was not within our bipartisan tradition of Ways and Means."

Levin on the Affordable Care Act:

"I am voting against [the Upton Bill] because it would destroy an effort to provide health care for everybody and to make sure that premium costs go down. The health care reform bill is already helping to drive down premium increases. They used to go up more than 10%. The annual increase in cost care has been going down the last 4-5 years, in part because of health care reform. For everybody, particularly those who have no insurance, health care reform is essential. … I think the President's action yesterday was necessary. The ball had been fumbled and now we need to pick it up and make it work. Essentially he is saying to those insurance companies and to the insurance commissioners, let's make sure that those who have – this is about 5% of the market -- those who have policies can keep them next year. … In Michigan, over one million people did not have insurance. Also people with preexisting conditions were at risk of having their plan canceled or not renewed by the insurance company. That was not workable. There were no lifetime limits for most of these policies or annual limits. So when people hit a certain limit, they were totally on their own. The market was not working well. There was a decision to do two things. Provide Medicaid coverage for people below a certain income and also to make sure, for those above it, that there was an opportunity through the private insurance market to get affordable and adequate insurance. It was a combination of Medicaid and of using the private insurance structure to make sure millions more were insured."

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