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Republican leaders in the Senate somehow needed to find an extra few hundred billion dollars.

They needed to find that money because they want to cut taxes on the wealthy — and cut them deeply. By the time the Senate leaders had finished coming up with all of their top-end tax cuts last week, their bill was projected to cost more than the House had previously committed to spending.

So how could the Senate solve its shortfall?

One option would have been to cut taxes a little less for the wealthy. That is not the option the Senate leaders chose.

Instead, they said yesterday that they would be getting rid of the individual mandate — the federal rule, in the Affordable Care Act, that requires people to have health insurance or pay a fine. The politics of scrapping the mandate have long been tempting. Many people don’t like being required to buy anything.