Trumpanzee Fights To Cut Taxes On The Super-Rich

Dysfunctional GOP by Nancy Ohanian

Yesterday Ryan brought policy expert Donald J Trumpanzee to persuade the Freedom Caucus and other far right sociopaths that the Senate-passed budget is something they need to get behind. I would have loved to have been able to listen to the ignorant boob on the conference call trying to explain something he doesn't have a clue about to a pack of congressmen who tend to see him as a clown-- albeit their clown. I hope a tape gets out quickly. Pence was on the call as well, so it will definitely be leaked within 24 hours.

Remember, this budget is anything but balanced, something the Freedom Caucus still pretends to care about. And the tax cuts add $1.5 trillion to the deficit, which the Freedom Caucus are demanding be balanced out by immediately cutting Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and welfare programs. (Less radical Republicans are opposed to the whole plan because the elimination of the federal income tax deduction for state and local taxes will burn their voters-- especially in California, New York, New Jersey, Minnesota and Illinois, where there are 38 Republican congressmembers. And then there's the little matter of screwing around with middle class retirement savings plans.

This could turn out very ugly for Speaker Ryan. As Rachael Bade pointed out for Politico yesterday, this is "not the first time House Republicans have been asked to swallow a budget they dislike. In January, conservatives balked when Speaker Paul Ryan insisted they support a budget that did little to tackle federal deficits in order to advance a bill to repeal Obamacare. [He] promised at the time that the next budget bill would incorporate more conservative principles. Instead, House conservatives feel they are again being asked to accept a budget deal they disagree with, this time so that tax reform talks can move forward."

Ryan, Scalise and Patrick McHenry, who took over as chief Whip while Scalise was in the hospital, have been badgering the Freedom Caucus and Republican Study Group members that "haggling with the Senate over the fiscal blueprint would delay the tax bill by three or more weeks [and that it would be] better to just accept the Senate version and move on."

The pressure by Trump, the White House and GOP leaders to back the budget appears to be working. Even conservatives who dislike the Senate plan say they feel it has momentum.

In a Saturday statement, Walker said the “Senate ignored the House's attempt to balance the budget and reform mandatory entitlement programs” but that the Republican Study Committee “reached our decision to support the Senate Budget Resolution based on the premise of beginning markup of tax reform legislation within a couple of weeks.”

The group also got a thumbs-up from leadership on a balanced budget vote and deficit reducing legislation, which will likely die in the Senate.

It is unclear, however, whether the Freedom Caucus would make their own support for the budget contingent on House leaders publicly promising to hold a vote on tax reform by mid-November. A decision to block the budget would likely prompt pushback from the White House.

The details of the call have begun leaking out. Trump told the Republicans if they don't do what he tells them-- and when he tells them-- they're risking a 2018 bloodbath. President Gas said, "We are on the verge of doing something very, very historic."