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Senate Republicans have decided to include the repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most people have health insurance into the sprawling tax rewrite, merging the fight over health care with the high-stakes effort to cut taxes. They also have made a calculated gamble to help speed their bill to passage on a party-line vote: Republicans revealed late Tuesday they would set all of their tax cuts for individuals to expire at the end of 2025, to comply with a procedural requirement. Their deep cut in the corporate tax rate would remain permanent. (Kaplan and Tankersley, 11/14)

The surprise renewal of the failed effort to eliminate the health care law's mandate came a day after President Donald Trump renewed pressure on Republican lawmakers to include the repeal in their sweeping legislation to revamp the tax system. It carries high political stakes for Trump, who lacks a major legislative achievement after nearly 10 months in office. The move by Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee upended the debate over the tax measure just as it was inching closer to passage following months of fine-tuning and compromise. (11/15)

For Republicans, the benefits are tempting. If they can pull it off, it's a two-for-one victory. They will have overhauled the US tax code and taken a bite out of former President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement, even if it falls short of the "root and branch" health care repeal many had vowed to see through. But if they fail, Republicans will enter the midterm election year with their message muddled, without a victory on tax reform, and having spent a year's worth of time trying and repeatedly failing to dismantle Obamacare with nothing to show for it but bad headlines. (Fox, 11/15)

Repealing the mandate, which compels most Americans to buy health insurance or pay a fine, would free up more than $300 billion in government funding over the next decade that Republicans could use to finance their proposed tax cuts, but it would result in 13 million fewer people having health insurance, according to projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. (DeBonis and Paletta, 11/14)

Republicans plan to use the money freed up by repealing the mandate to direct tax cuts to middle-income households. They want to increase their proposed $1,650 child tax credit to $2,000 per child and lower the tax rates in three brackets, dropping the proposed 22.5%, 25% and 32.5% rates to 22%, 24% and 32%, respectively, according to the proposal, released Tuesday night by the Senate Finance Committee. (Armour and Rubin, 11/15)

It remains to be seen whether Senate leaders can muster the 50 votes needed from their own party to pass the new version, though they expressed confidence. "We're optimistic that inserting the individual mandate repeal would be helpful," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said. (Mascaro and Puzzanghera, 11/14)

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said he was confident that it could pass the Senate. “It’s been whipped,” said Thune, a member of the GOP leadership, adding that it’s an idea “we’ve been looking at for some time as a potential solution for some of the challenges that we’re facing in trying to make the bill do the things we’re trying to accomplish.” (Haberkorn, Kim and Becker, 11/14)

Republican Sen. Rob Portman will support scrapping an Obamacare requirement that Americans buy health insurance, a move added to the Senate GOP tax cut that will help finance the proposal but could cause as many as 13 million people to drop their federally subsidized individual insurance policies. In a conference call with Ohio reporters Tuesday, Portman said there is “broad support” among Senate Republicans to kill the so-call “individual mandate,” which imposed fines on those who do not buy insurance policies through marketplaces established by the 2010 Affordable Care Act signed by former President Barack Obama. (Torry, 11/14)

Democrats and industry groups castigated Senate Republicans on Tuesday for including the repeal in their tax package. An array of industry groups—including the American Medical Association and America’s Health Insurance Plans, a major insurers’ organization—wrote congressional leaders urging them to keep the mandate. “The tax bill is going to hit the American people with a health-care double whammy,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), warning that millions would lose their health insurance or pay higher premiums. (Armour, 11/14)

Senate Republicans are working on a tax bill, and today Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul formally proposed an amendment that would get rid of the Affordable Care Act's individual health insurance mandate. Sarah Kliff is the senior policy correspondent at Vox and the host of the new podcast "The Impact." Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal called her up to do a little tax bill unpacking. (Ryssdal, 11/14)