Will the president accept just about anything on tax reform? He seemed to suggest as much at his rally in Missouri Wednesday. “If they send it to my desk, I promise all of the people in this room, my friends, so many friends in this room—a great state—I promise you I will sign it,” Donald Trump told the crowd at the St. Charles Convention Center near St. Louis. “I promise. I will not veto that bill. There will be no veto.”
The admission is what the journalist Michael Kinsley would call a Washington gaffe—an “obvious truth” that a politician let slip out accidentally. Yes, Trump doesn’t make gaffes, but the statement reveals how the White House has spent much of the tax reform debate not mired in the details or pushing for a full-realized vision on the tax code. After releasing the broad framework of its goals for tax reform, the White House has let congressional leadership take charge. Trump wants a bill to sign, and there will be no veto.
Here’s how one Washington Republican put it to me this week: Trump’s overriding desire for Congress to pass something means he doesn’t have a lot of credibility on negotiating. That’s fine, since he seems to have no interest in doing so. Trump’s real power is being able to provide cover for whatever compromise the House and Senate Republicans are able to hammer out.
So the power to shape the policy in the final bill rests largely with Republicans in Congress—who may or may not make wise or politically prudent decisions in the effort to make the reforms balance and get enough votes to pass. Not that it will matter to Trump: After all, there will be no veto.
On the Other Hand—Here’s one detail Trump does seem to be interested in: keeping the corporate tax rate cut at 20 percent. Spokesman Raj Shah told reporters Wednesday the White House opposes a slightly higher rate, 22 percent, which a pair of Republican senators is proposing.
Mike Lee of Utah and Marco Rubio of Florida introduced an amendment to the Senate bill that would expand the increase in the child tax credit to lower-income families by making the credit refundable toward payroll taxes, not just income taxes. The bill already raises the credit to $2,000 (from $1,000), but most low-income families who do not pay income tax still contribute through the payroll tax.
The senators have been working with Ivanka Trump’s office on the broader policy goal of making the child tax credit refundable, though there’s been no discussion with the White House about paying for it through an increase in the corporate rate. There appears to be little interest in doing so from the president, though it’s not clear if passing the Lee-Rubio amendment would prompt any kind of veto threat.
“We do support the child tax credit,” said Shah aboard Air Force One Wednesday. “We also think that it’s important to make businesses more competitive. We would not support raising the corporate rate as outlined in that amendment.”
Mark It Down—“This week’s vote can be the beginning of the next great chapter for the American worker.” —Donald Trump, on the Senate’s expected vote on the tax reform bill, in St. Charles, Missouri, November 29, 2017
In MIssouri, Trump offered few specifics about what kind of bill he hoped the Senate would give him, even as Congress prepares to spend the next few days amending the package. What he did insist on is the tax cuts won’t be good for the rich.
“This is not good for me. I have some very wealthy friends who are not so happy with me, but that’s okay,” Trump said with a shrug. “I think my accountants are going crazy right now. . . . Hey, look, I’m president, I don’t care anymore. Some of my wealthy friends care. Me, this is a higher calling, do we agree?”
But Republicans and Democrats agree that the wealthy will benefit from the package. The Republican argument has been that middle class Americans will also benefit, both from a promised lower tax bill but also from the growth benefits of cutting corporate taxes. But Trump’s pitch in Missouri was simple.
“A vote to cut taxes is a vote to put America first again,” he said. “It’s time to take care of our workers, to protect our communities, and to rebuild our great country.”
Trump Tweets of the Day—Where to begin? Try here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Oh, and there’s still the three videos from a far-right, anti-Muslim account that Trump retweeted early Wednesday morning.
My colleague Chris Deaton puts President Trump’s busy Wednesday morning on Twitter into, well, some kind of perspective:
Sexual Harassment Watch—The ousting of Matt Lauer from NBC News and Today isn’t just fodder for Trump’s tweets. It’s a sign of both how deep the rot of sexual misconduct is among the men of our leading institutions and how those institutions, under public pressure, are no longer able or willing to protect them.
Read the Variety report, if you can stomach it, and then the New York Times report, both of which document some of the allegations against Lauer from women at NBC. One of those allegations came to NBC’s attention Monday, which prompted the network to make its relatively swift decision to fire Lauer. But if Variety and the Times are to be believed, this isn’t the first time NBC brass have heard of the 59-year-old anchor’s bad behavior.
One More Thing—Democratic congressman John Conyers won’t be resigning, sources tell a local TV station in Detroit. But the 88-year-old House member who has been accused of sexual harassment by former employees is supposedly not seeking reelection next year.
Kellyanne Watch—So what’s White House counselor Kellyanne Conway been up to? Apparently, she’s been tapped to head up the White House’s opioid crisis response effort. That’s according to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“Looks like Conway has the job,” reports BuzzFeed. “Trump has asked her ‘to coordinate and lead the effort from the White House,’ Sessions said at a news conference in remarks that went beyond prepared ones from the event.”
Song of the Day—“Some Might Say” by Oasis
