MORE THAN ONE WAY TO SKIN A CAT: Senate GOP Tax Plan to Include Repeal of Health Law Individual Mandate.

GOP leaders have been cautious about bogging down the tax bill with controversial health-care provisions, but have been suggesting they could include the repeal because it would generate revenue that could be used to pay for tax cuts elsewhere.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said it would be part of the tax bill. “The Senate Finance Committee has decided to include that,” Mr. McConnell said.

Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said Republicans intend to use the savings generated by repealing the individual mandate to lower taxes for middle-income households. “It’ll be distributed in the form of middle-income tax relief,” he said.

Mr. Thune and Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) pitched the idea of including the measure to Finance Committee members Monday night and again at a luncheon for Republican senators Tuesday, a Senate GOP aide said.

Mr. Thune said he didn’t anticipate that adding the repeal of the individual mandate would prompt many GOP defections from the tax package. Republicans, who hold a 52-48 majority in the Senate, can afford to lose no more than two GOP votes if all Democrats vote against the tax bill as expected. Vice President Mike Pence could break a potential 50-50 tie.

“It’s been whipped,” Mr. Thune said, referring to the process of rounding up and counting votes.

The question remains whether some of the Senate’s provisions can make it through the House, or if Paul Ryan will be forced into a position where he has to push through the Senate bill by the end of the year, or chalk up another legislative defeat.