Senator Tom Cotton has what he calls a "modest proposal" for thetax legislation that House Republicans are poised to release onWednesday: eliminate the Obamacare individual mandate. The idea has been resistedby GOP leaders, who worry that mixing health care and taxes could imperil prospectsfor the upcoming bill.

“Why repeal popular tax deductions when $300B available frommandate repeal?!” the first-term Arkansas Republican argued in aseries of tweets Sunday.

A December 2016 estimate by theCongressional Budget Office found that ending the mandate’s taxpenalty for most Americans who fail to buy insurance would raise$416 billion over a decade, while causing 15 million to lose theirinsurance. The savings are mostly because fewer people would usethe federal subsidies to buy coverage. An earlier estimate placed thedeficit-reduction figure around $300 billion.

The proposal partially mirrors the so-called "skinny" AffordableCare Act repeal measure that failed to pass the Senate in July amidopposition from Republican Senators John McCain, Susan Collins andLisa Murkowski. The GOP has the same margin for error -- it cannotlose more than three votes -- to pass a tax bill. Including arepeal of the mandate could endanger those same three votes.Cotton, however, said that ending the mandate should be an “easyvote as part of tax-cut package.”

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