GOP Senator Eyes Health Care Overhaul and Trump Tax Cuts in One Big 2025 Bill

As Donald Trump calls for overhauling the Affordable Care Act with a new health care system, a Republican senator running for an influential leadership position says the party should combine that pursuit with a major tax bill in the new year.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., told NBC News after the vice presidential debate in New York on Tuesday night that if voters elect Trump and a GOP-controlled Congress, Republicans will be able to make health care more affordable, more tailored and more personalized than the one-size-fits-all option, referring to the ACA, or Obamacare.

“We’ll have an opportunity next year, when it comes time to extend the Trump tax cuts, to adopt new policies that again will make health care more affordable and more personalized,” Cotton said. “Because a lot of health care in this country does go through our tax code. So I think that’ll be a very good opportunity next year.”

Republicans are widely considering an extension of the Trump tax law as major parts of the 2017 measure expire at the end of next year, calling it necessary to prevent a tax hike. Cotton, who is running to be No. 3 Republican in the Senate next year as part of a leadership shuffle, said the GOP can attach health care changes to an extension of the Trump tax cuts through the filibuster-proof “reconciliation” process for spending and taxes; that would allow it to pass both major policy bills at once with only Republican votes if it secures majorities in Congress.

“Because the Democrats have become so obstructionist on President Trump, the opportunity to pass major legislation next year will probably be centered on the extension of the Trump tax cuts from 2017 in addition to other measures,” Cotton said. Trump has called Obamacare