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The Senate bill would cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from a top rate of 35 percent. For individuals, it would make tax cuts temporary and create seven income tax brackets, with a bottom rate of 10 percent and a top marginal rate of 38.5 percent, down from the current rate of 39.6 percent.

Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the Republican chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said that he felt encouraged that the two chambers would be able to align their bills but that the House would not simply pass the Senate legislation.

For as much common ground as we have, there are some areas where we are taking different approaches that will be worked, and can only be worked out, in a conference, Mr. Brady said.

Lawmakers are also awaiting a report from the Joint Committee on Taxation that would show the effects of the proposed tax cuts on the economy. That analysis is important, since it will indicate the extent to which the cuts will bolster growth and avoid adding to the deficit. Outside analysts expect the assessment to demonstrate that the Senate bill does not create nearly enough growth to generate revenues to offset those lost via tax cuts, essentially undermining Republicans claims that the bill would pay for itself.

Mr. Corker, who has voiced the loudest concerns about the bills effect on the deficit, said on Tuesday that he received assurances that the final legislation would include a mechanism to avoid ballooning the debt, which has passed $20 trillion. While the exact details were not specified, the bill is expected to include some type of trigger that would require certain taxes to increase if the package does not generate as much revenue as projected.

I think weve come to a pretty acceptable place, from my standpoint, said Mr. Corker, who has stated that he would be unable to vote for the bill if it added to the federal deficit.

That trigger, however, could complicate the bills passage. Several other Republican lawmakers, including Mr. Brady and Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, are resistant to the idea of including a trigger that would increase taxes.

Im not too keen on automatic tax increases, Mr. Kennedy said. Im just not too excited about this idea of automatically tying our hands.

Americans for Prosperity, the conservative group backed by Charles G. and David H. Koch, also blasted the idea, calling a trigger mechanism antithetical to the principles of the unified tax framework that lawmakers have proposed.

There is no consensus among economists about the amount of growth that would occur under the plan, but key models predict it would not cover its cost.

Other holdouts, like Mr. Johnson, appear to have been swayed by admonishments or assurances. Mr. Johnson objected to the bill on the grounds that it did not do enough to help so-called pass-through businesses, which pass their income on to their owners.

During lunch with Mr. Trump, the president chastised Mr. Johnson over objections he raised in the meeting, telling the senator at one point, Come on, Ron, according to a person familiar with the discussion who declined to be identified because the event was not public.

Mr. Johnson voted for the bill on Tuesday, telling reporters: The good news is, everybody agrees its a problem, it has to be fixed. I just keep getting assurances its going to be fixed. I just want to see how.

Other Republican senators who have been skeptical of the tax bill also appeared ready to back it.

Ms. Collins, who has not yet thrown her support behind the bill, said that she felt more optimistic about the plan after meeting with the president.

I believe that a lot of my concerns, it appears, are going to be addressed and that Im going to be getting the opportunity to offer amendments on the Senate floor, she said.

Ms. Collins said that the president was supportive of her wishes that $10,000 of property taxes be deductible under the Senate plan, a change that would be similar to the compromise that House Republicans made on the repeal of the state and local tax deduction. She also said that Mr. Trump was supportive of backing legislation to help stabilize health insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act, which she said would help mitigate the effects of ending the laws requirement that most people have insurance, as the tax bill would do.

Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, said that Senate Republicans were increasingly united about repealing the requirement that most people have health insurance or pay a penalty.

He said that Mr. Trump was very involved in the details of the tax package on Tuesday and that he took several questions from senators.

He had a vigorous back-and-forth, Mr. Alexander said.

Both Mr. Alexander and Ms. Collins demurred when asked whether they would be concerned if the Joint Committee on Taxation report showed that the bill would increase the deficit even with additional economic growth.

Im not going to be hypothetical about that, Mr. Alexander said.

Democrats on the Budget Committee assailed their Republican colleagues for shedding their deficit hawk feathers and backing a bill that they say is fiscally irresponsible. Many Republican senators left after protesters disrupted the meeting, chanting, Kill the bill.

Acknowledging that a final vote was most likely days away, Democratic leaders appeared to have few procedural maneuvers left to slow the progress of the tax bill.

Our Republican colleagues, in their rush to get a bill done, are legislating in an irresponsible way, especially when it comes to something as important and complex as the tax code, said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader.

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Republicans Clear Major Hurdle as Tax Bill Advances

Like many other advocacy groups, the chamber is putting extra emphasis on how lawmakers vote on tax and economic issues and wont be inclined to throw its support behind those who dont share the views of the business lobby.

The first big test for Senate Republicans and their two-seat majority comes next week, when they will try to advance a budget that sets the parameters for a tax bill and establishes a procedural framework to approve it with a simple majority. The House last week narrowly passed its version of a budget, but not before 18 Republicans defected.

A tax overhaul would be nearly impossible to achieve if the budget fails, and Senate leaders dont have the kind of cushion that their House counterparts had. Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, has already indicated that he could oppose the spending plan. Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who has clashed with the president and helped kill the health care repeal, is also considered a question mark.

That means Republicans cannot spare another vote.

Thats where the increasingly toxic relationship between Mr. Trump and Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee comes into play. Mr. Corker is a senior Republican member on the Budget Committee who had already expressed misgivings about the tax plan and the potential for higher federal deficits. Losing his vote could be fatal. But Mr. Corker has very close relationships in the Senate, and many Republicans doubt he would kill the budget or tax plan simply to spite Mr. Trump.

Defeating the budget is dishing more punishment on your colleagues than it is on the president, said Neil Bradley, senior vice president at the chamber and a former top Republican official in the House.

Acutely aware of the tightrope he is walking, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, wrote an op-ed for NBC News encouraging Democrats interested in cutting taxes to put aside their issues with the president and join Republicans. It is unlikely to have much effect on the usually party-line budget vote, but Republicans know their job would be much easier if they could peel off just one or two centrist Democrats facing re-election next year.

Any significant rewrite of the tax code is extremely difficult a political truth underscored by the fact that the last major overhaul was in 1986. Republicans concede that there are plenty of disagreements of the magnitude that could easily scuttle a proposal.

But they argue that Republicans are in such a politically perilous position because of their lack of accomplishment thus far that lawmakers and the White House are going to have to overlook their differences and come together on a plan. Otherwise theyll be staring into the abyss.

Members on both sides of the Capitol are going to have to be flexible and swallow features that may give them political indigestion in order to get a bill, said Bob Stevenson, a Republican strategist and former senior Senate aide who was on Capitol Hill for the last tax overhaul. But as Ben Franklin said, You hang together or hang separately.

Mr. Bradley, the chamber official, said he agreed that in a more conventional political environment, existing divisions among Republicans could be sufficient to kill a tax bill. But there is such a growing realization that failure is not an option that they will be able to overcome a lot of these policy and political conflicts, he said.

Mr. Bradley notes that Republicans might not be the only ones to take a hit if the tax-cut push collapses. He said the death knell for tax revisions would cause a worrisome domestic economic disruption as well.

As they fret about the outlook for tax cuts, Republicans also understand that eventual success on a tax plan could ease a lot of the criticism they have come under for their legislative failures and demonstrate they have the capacity to run Washington.

This is not one that can get left on the cutting room floor, said Josh Holmes, a communications adviser with close ties to Mr. McConnell. It has become a barometer of whether Republicans can govern under Trumps leadership.

At the moment, thats still an open question. But a Republican failure to succeed on a tax bill would provide an irrefutable answer.

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For Republicans, Failure Is Not an Option on Tax Cuts - The ...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is in the hot seat, as Senate Republicans appear to be on the precipice of yet another health care failure. Alex Wong/Getty Images hide caption

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is in the hot seat, as Senate Republicans appear to be on the precipice of yet another health care failure.

Updated at 3:35 p.m. ET

Republicans are once again waving the white flag on health care.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that he is pulling the Republican health care bill because it does not have the votes.

Rather than endure another embarrassing vote that sees his caucus come up short, the senators agreed in a closed-door meeting to shelve the bill.

It's another chapter in months of GOP failure to unite on a replacement of the current health care law, the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare despite a years-long galvanizing conservative push to do so.

With Republicans' latest health care failure, there is a question of what it could mean for McConnell. He and President Trump have not been on the same page and do not appear to have a warm relationship. Trump has criticized him on Twitter for previously being unable to pass health care, and there were reports of an intense, profanity-laced telephone call between the two.

Could this embarrassment for the GOP and president be the impetus for Trump to turn up the pressure even more on McConnell and try to seek a replacement?

"[A]t some point," Trump said at the White House before the announcement, "there will be a repeal and replace. ... But we are disappointed in certain so-called Republicans."

Three Republicans came out against the bill Susan Collins of Maine, John McCain of Arizona and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Republicans could lose only two senators for the bill to pass through the budget process of reconciliation, which allows for a majority vote instead of the 60-vote threshold ordinarily needed to end a filibuster.

The legislation suffered a fatal blow Monday night when Collins declared her opposition. Collins lambasted the bill in a statement, citing her problems with the bill as three-fold: "sweeping changes and cuts" to Medicaid, weakening "protections for people with pre-existing conditions," and that it "would lead to higher premiums and reduced coverage for tens of millions of Americans."

The GOP bill would have fundamentally overhauled Medicaid from an open-ended federal guarantee to a system that caps funds to the states but would have given them more flexibility in how they spent those dollars.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said he and House Republicans were "a little frustrated the Senate has not acted on a seminal promise."

Ryan noted that his conference had done its job, passing legislation in May.

Instead, congressional leaders and the president are ready to move on to overhauling the tax code.

They are set to unveil a "framework" for their legislation Wednesday, and McConnell said the Senate Budget Committee will mark up its resolution on taxes next week.

Trump said Tuesday he had asked members of Congress from both parties to "discuss our framework for tax cuts and tax reform before it will be released tomorrow. We will be releasing a very comprehensive, very detailed report tomorrow. And it will be a very, very powerful document."

Trump said the plan will be based on four principles:

1. "Make our tax code simple and fair." (He promised Americans would be able to file their taxes on a "single page.")

2. "Cut taxes tremendously for the middle class, not just a little bit but tremendously." (Double the standard deduction and increase the child tax credit.)

3. Lower business taxes.

4. "Bring back trillions of dollars in wealth parked overseas."

A comprehensive tax overhaul has not happened since 1986.

"Tomorrow is the beginning of a very important process that we are excited about here in Congress," Ryan said.

As for health care, McConnell tried to paint the debate as one of the Graham-Cassidy bill versus a single-payer system. Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the bill's principal authors, had framed it as "federalism versus socialism." Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, as well as some Democrats, have touted a "Medicare for all" plan.

But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York took to the Senate floor Tuesday to knock McConnell's argument as a "straw man" and a "false choice."

"Democrats have a lot of ideas about how to improve health care," Schumer said. "Each of them endeavors to increase coverage, improve the quality of care, and lower the cost of care. None none of the Republican plans manage to achieve those goals. That's the difference. The difference is one side wants to cut health care to average Americans, increase premiums, give the insurance companies far more freedom, and one side wants to increase care, the number of people covered, lower premiums, better coverage. That's the divide."

Schumer also accused Republicans of not wanting to have that debate on the merits and called for a "bipartisan way to improve the existing system."

Later, after the announcement of the bill's demise, Schumer called for a bipartisan approach. Standing next to Washington state Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, Schumer promoted the work of Murray and Republican Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, to try to fix the current system.

"I saw Sen. Alexander in the gym this morning," Schumer said, "and he seemed open to it [working on a bipartisan deal]."

Read more here:
Republicans Scrapping Health Care Vote Again : NPR

By John C. Danforth By John C. Danforth August 24 at 8:16 PM

John C. Danforth was a Republican U.S. senator from Missouri from 1976 to 1995.

Many have said that President Trump isnt a Republican. They are correct, but for a reason more fundamental than those usually given. Some focus on Trumps differences from mainstream GOP policies, but the party is broad enough to embrace different views, and Trump agrees with most Republicans on many issues. Others point to the insults he regularly directs at party members and leaders, but Trump is not the first to promote self above party. The fundamental reason Trump isnt a Republican is far bigger than words or policies. He stands in opposition to the founding principle of our party that of a united country.

We are the party of Abraham Lincoln, and our founding principle is our commitment to holding the nation together. This brought us into being just before the Civil War. The first resolution of the platform at the partys first national convention states in part that the union of the States must and shall be preserved. The issue then was whether we were one nation called the United States or an assortment of sovereign states, each free to go its own way. Lincoln believed that we were one nation, and he led us in a war to preserve the Union.

That founding principle of the party is also a founding principle of the United States. Even when we were a tiny fraction of our present size and breadth, the framers of our Constitution understood the need for holding ourselves together, whatever our differences. They created a constitutional structure and a Bill of Rights that would accommodate within one nation all manner of interests and opinions. Americans honor that principle in the national motto on the presidential seal: e pluribus unum out of many, one. Today, the United States is far more diverse than when we were a nation of 3 million people , but the principle remains the same: We are of many different backgrounds, beliefs, races and creeds, and we are one.

The Republican Party has a long history of standing for a united country. Theodore Roosevelt raised up the ordinary people of his day and championed their cause against abusive trusts. Dwight Eisenhower used the army to integrate a Little Rock high school. George H.W. Bush signed the most important civil rights legislation in more than a quarter-century, a bill authored by Republican senators. George W. Bush stood before Congress and the nation and defended Muslims after 9/11. Our record hasnt been perfect. When we have pushed the agenda of the Christian right, we have seemed to exclude people who dont share our religious beliefs. We have seemed unfriendly to gay Americans. But our long history has been to uphold the dignity of all of Gods people and to build a country welcoming to all.

Now comes Trump, who is exactly what Republicans are not, who is exactly what we have opposed in our 160-year history. We are the party of the Union, and he is the most divisive president in our history. There hasnt been a more divisive person in national politics since George Wallace.

It isnt a matter of occasional asides, or indiscreet slips of the tongue uttered at unguarded moments. Trump is always eager to tell people that they dont belong here, whether its Mexicans, Muslims, transgender people or another group. His message is, You are not one of us, the opposite of e pluribus unum. And when he has the opportunity to unite Americans, to inspire us, to call out the most hateful among us, the KKK and the neo-Nazis, he refuses.

To my fellow Republicans: We cannot allow Donald Trump to redefine the Republican Party. That is what he is doing, as long as we give the impression by our silence that his words are our words and his actions are our actions. We cannot allow that impression to go unchallenged.

As has been true since our beginning, we Republicans are the party of Lincoln, the party of the Union. We believe in our founding principle. We are proud of our illustrious history. We believe that we are an essential part of present-day American politics. Our country needs a responsibly conservative party. But our party has been corrupted by this hateful man, and it is now in peril.

In honor of our past and in belief in our future, for the sake of our party and our nation, we Republicans must disassociate ourselves from Trump by expressing our opposition to his divisive tactics and by clearly and strongly insisting that he does not represent what it means to be a Republican.

Link:
Trump is exactly what Republicans are not - Washington Post

Being away from New York and the news cycle for a few days gives you tremendous perspective and a bit of a mental health break, but the facts of our present situation become no less clear with distance from the cable news set. Donald Trump is no less a disaster this week than he was last week. And he will be no less a disaster next week than he is today.

Indeed Trump, lashing out at the media and whipping his audiences into a frenzy of xenophobia and Confederacy nostalgia, is in a sense not the president of the United States. True, he remains installed in office until by the grace of Bob Mueller he is compelled to resign or 2020 brings forward the better angels of American voters nature. But he no more leads this nation than a garden gnome grows your hydrangeas. He is an empty figurehead, mentally unraveling on live television and swinging wildly at the ghosts of his accidental victory and certain condemnation by history. To the extent he leads anyone, its little more than the same ragged cult of dead enders whove always been among uswhove swung back and forth between the parties for more than a century and who cant bring themselves to regard the naked emperor in their midst or face the true meaning of their vote for him.

According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, Trump earns a lopsided disapproval rating of 59 percent, with just 35 percent of Americans applauding the job he is doing. At this stage it makes little sense to wonder what that 35 percent are thinking. Suffice it to say it may be down to pure tribal loyalty. Per Quinnipiac: [e]very party, gender, education, age and racial group disapproves of Trumps performance, except Republicans, who approve 77-14 percent; white voters with no college, approving 52-40 percent, and white men, who approve by a narrow 50-46 percent.

In other words, Trump is the leader of approximately one half of one third of the adult population of the United States.

Im often asked as I move around the country, what can be done to stop the nightmare that Trump represents to the other two-thirds of Americans. I think the answer is fairly simple. As you march for the resistance or just watch the Trump dumpster fire burn, begin preparing to kick out the pillar propping him up: namely, the Republican Congress that serves as his sword and shield. These men and a few women have perfected the art of complaining to reporters on background, yet they have made clear that they will do nothing to bring the Trump Hindenburg to the ground before it incinerates itself and everyone in it. Their love of tax cuts and gutting health care is too great, and their fear of the small, hardened core of Trump enthusiasts in their states and districts is too strong.

It therefore falls to the Democrats, the imperfect, often scattered opposition party, to right the ship. This is no time for intraparty perfectionism or partisan protectionism. All who wish to see the Trump circus brought to an end need to focus on doing whatever it takes to put the Democratic Party in charge of Congress on Jan. 1, 2019.

This is not a matter of mere partisanship. Republicans have made it clear that even the most heroic among them, John McCain, will do only enough to stop the worst aspects of Trumps disaster agenda, but no more. And if the Senate, led by the privately stewing but publicly obedient Mitch McConnell, is bad, the House and its dead-eyed Speaker Paul Ryan, are worse, since Ryans zeal to tear up the social safety net predates and even supersedes Trumps.

Whatever background disgust they feel about their boorish president, Republicans share much more in common with Trump than differences. All want to gut or repeal Obamacare. All want to slash taxes on the richest Americans at nearly any cost. All would willingly suppress voting rights to ensure perpetual Republican power even when demographic reality inevitably reduces it to minority rule. They may not be willing to shut down the government to build Trumps Potemkin wall or institute an economically disastrous border adjustment tax, but that doesnt mean they wont do all they can to advance the legislative pillars of Trumpism; and more importantly, to leave their addled figurehead in place.

And dont count on Trump voters to save the country. Whether the dug-in Trumpists fawned over continually by the obsessed anthropologists of the mainstream media, or the 12 percent of Bernie Sanders voters who pulled the lever for Trump to keep Her out of office, these Americans are what they are and they arent going to change. Its time to let them go, let them live their lives free from our collective gaze and get on with the hard work of fixing what Trumpism is making rotten.

That rot extends beyond politics. Trumpism is seeping into this countrys poresinfecting the schools where the presidents surname is an epithet hurled by white students against brown and black ones; by boys against girls and sometimes by teachers against their own students. It is sullying the churches where this presidents amorality is not just tolerated, but venerated as placed before us by the hand of God. Trumpism is making the United States a laughingstock around the world; and particularly after his shameful response to the Charlottesville and the rise of white nationalists under his banner, it is replacing international aspiration toward America with mortification. As a Trumpist nation, we are an anathema to a striving planet.

That can and must be undone. Robert Mueller is doing his work quietly and methodically, but Americans neednt wait for his investigations to reach fruition, or for a new Barack Obama to come along and save us in 2020, when the Congress can do it sooner.

And so, Democrats, its time to get serious and get your act together. Sideline the consultants and their TV ad buy fees, shut down the focus groups and make this very simple call to the American people: Give us the Congress; well take care of Trump.

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Give us the Congress; well take care of Trump.

What does that mean? It means that without Republicans standing in the way, Democrats can pass legislation that prevents Trump from gutting Medicaid or tanking the individual insurance market simply to punish Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and John McCain. It means vowing to put before him legislation that reasserts Congress power to send this nation to war and limits Trumps ability to launch a nuclear strike. And it means passing legislation that protects Muellers investigation from interference by the White House or by Republican members of congress and daring him to veto it.

To turn those promises into reality, Democrats must get busy launching a massive voter registration effort today. Republicans will throw every roadblock in the way of voters of color in 2018, and Democratsbacked by an army of lawyersmust be prepared to fight back. Having more voters on the rolls and more legal assistance for them will be crucial, particularly since theyll also be fighting the federal government.

For principled Republicans who see the threat that Trump represents, the message to you is simple: divided government is the only hope of salvaging your party too, since while Republicans remain in complete control of the federal government, there is no compelling the GOP to stop this president. Never-Trump Republicans made that hard choice in 2016, and they should make it again in 2018, for the good of the country. We can always go back to fighting the big ideological battles that continue to divide us in 2020.

For now, there is only one priority. Changing the leadership of congress is the only certain path to reining in Donald Trump and his kakistocratic administration. Take down his support system and the mad king sputters and falls. That means every state and congressional Republican who can be defeated in 2018 must be. Who knowsfacing the prospect of an opposition Congress instead of a body full of footmen, he may even be compelled to go quietly back to Mar-a-Lago or Bedminster on his own.

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Why the Republicans Must Pay for Trump - Daily Beast