House Freedom Caucus Chair Mark Meadows Demands Immediate Repeal of Obamacare’s Individual Mandate

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-NC) sent a letter on Thursday to the House Appropriations Committee demanding that Congress immediately repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate.

Chairman Meadows argued in a statement:

Americans are most successful when we allow them the kind of financial and economic security they deserve. However, the uncertainty surrounding Obamacare’s individual mandate penalty creates the exact opposite environment. Unfortunately, many Americans believe the mandate to be immediately repealed and no longer in effect, but will be surprised to learn that it still applies for both 2017 and 2018 tax returns. Congress must resolve this.

Last year President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which repealed Obamacare’s individual mandate. However, it only repealed the mandate’s penalty effective fiscal year 2019, leaving millions of Americans susceptible to a fine from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Breitbart News reported that 80 percent of Americans who pay the Obamacare individual mandate fine make less than $50,000 per year.

Rep. Meadows told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview last week that he continues to work with the House Appropriations Committee on ways to delay or repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate.

Meadows revealed last week, “There are a number of us that believe that in the next 90 days, we must require action to bring premiums down. I think you will see a flurry of legislative ideas that will try to do exactly that.”

Meadows continued, suggesting that Republicans will push to address the Obamacare employer mandate fine through the incoming omnibus spending bill.

Meadows said:

Additionally there is an omnibus coming up, and there are some ways to hopefully limit the financial ability of some of the agencies to impose penalties, i.e., some of the funding that would allow the IRS [Internal Revenue Service] to collect fees on the employer mandate and some of the other mandates they have used in such a fashion to keep Obamacare alive and well. I think you will see efforts redoubled to try to make sure we get premiums down.

Meadows concluded his statement on Thursday thus: “The individual mandate is a penalty that forces Americans to buy something they may not want or need, and its consequences hit the pocket books of low-income Americans the hardest. That’s why I have formally requested the Appropriations Committee include a full repeal of the individual mandate for 2018 and retroactive to 2017 so that we can give American families relief from the mandate’s unnecessary burden.”

Read Chairman Meadows’ letter here.