{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.daines.senate.gov/news/press-releases/daines-to-ryan-and-brady-repeal-the-individual-mandate", "Daines to Ryan & Brady: Repeal the Individual Mandate", "2017-11-06", "2017", "2017-11", "Republican", "House", "MT", "Steve Daines", "D000618", "www.daines.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "11.06.17\n\t\t\t Daines to Ryan & Brady: Repeal the Individual Mandate \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tU.S. SENATE\u00a0\u2014 U.S. Senator Steve Daines today urged Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee Kevin Brady to include a\u00a0full repeal of the individual mandate\u00a0in H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.\u00a0\u00a0\r\n\u201cI\u2019m encouraging the Speaker and Chairman Brady to include eliminating the individual mandate in the House tax bill \u2013 a fine on the low income in our country,\u201d\u00a0Daines stated.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s important we take every opportunity to repeal this costly tax and this is a prime opportunity to repeal the tax.\u201d\u00a0\r\nObamacare imposes a tax penalty on Americans who don\u2019t buy insurance and in 2014 and 2015 alone, they collected over $5 billion dollars in fines. Billions more were collected in 2016.\u00a0In 2015, nearly 30,000 Montanans had to pay the IRS $14,341,000 for choosing not to purchase Obamacare, an average tax of $487 per household. 75 percent of Montana households who pay this tax make less than $50,000 per year.\u00a0\u00a0\r\nOn\u00a0September 29, 2017, Daines introduced the Repeal and Refund Act, to retroactively repeal the individual mandate and refund everyone who has paid it.\u00a0\u00a0\r\nDaines\u00a0took to the Senate floor\u00a0to blast the poverty tax and shared just a few stories of the 34,250 Montanans who paid the poverty tax in 2014. \u00a0Montanans paid nearly $7.8 million dollars to the IRS \u2013 40 percent Montanans who paid Obamacare\u2019s poverty tax made less than\u00a0$25,000 and 80 percent made less than 50,000.\r\n###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t  \n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n  \n\t\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \t\n    \t\n\t    \t  \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tPrevious Article\n\t\t    \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tNext Article", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.daines.senate.gov/news/press-releases/daines-to-ryan-and-brady-repeal-the-individual-mandate"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.1656739991158247, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}