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Late last year Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed into law, a $1.4 trillion dollar spending package that repeals three onerous taxes from the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Tax relief is good news in these days of growing and ever-expanding government, the economy in general, as well as family budgets.

The tax relief is also good news in that it must have been passed on a bipartisan basis, which is rare in these days of sharply divided politics and rancorous rhetoric.

Especially onerous was the so-called “Cadillac” tax of Obamacare, which wasn’t scheduled to go into effect until 2022. Among its provisions, it would have imposed a 40 percent excise tax on employer-sponsored plans that exceeded $10,000 in premiums per year for a single person or $27,500 for a family.

“Today is a great day for the 178 million Americans who get their health care coverage from an employer,” said James A. Klein, president of the American Benefits Council in a statement from the Alliance to Fight the 40, after the tax was repealed. “Repealing this onerous tax will help protect the employer-provided health care system that efficiently and effectively covers more than half of all Americans.”

Also repealed were the Health Insurance Tax and the Medical Device Tax.

The Health Insurance Tax was previously suspended, but scheduled to reappear in 2020 before disappearing for good in 2021. That onerous tax would have imposed a yearly fee on insurance companies that provide health policies, including “individual policies, small groups, non self-insured employers, Medicaid Managed carer, Medicare Part D, and Medicare Advantage,” according to Center Forward, a political action committee.

The likewise onerous Medical Device Tax was an excise tax of 2.3 percent on gross sales of medical devices used by people, such as x-ray machines and hospital beds. It was suspended in 2015 and is now repealed.

Taxing health care is not only onerous, but also unconscionable. Health care costs are expensive as it is, and that cost should not be added to by government taxes.

Tax relief is always welcomed, but especially with regards to health care taxes. Thank you, Congress and President Trump.

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This editorial was written by a member of the American Press Editorial Board. Its content reflects the collaborative opinion of the Board, whose members include Crystal Stevenson, John Guidroz, Jim Beam and Mike Jones.