Congressional Republicans are gung ho to start cutting taxes for the rich, the promise that they all ran for office on and have been elected to keep. But it suddenly seems to be dawning on them that it's not enough to say they're going to do something like repeal Obamacare, or cut taxes. They have to actually do policy work stuff to make it happen. And that kind of has them freaking out because—and where have we heard this before—there is no plan.
That’s triggered frustration among rank and file lawmakers who feel pressure from President Donald Trump to pass a tax reform bill but have seen no details and worry they’ll be backed into a corner on legislation they haven’t even seen, much like they were with the failed Obamacare repeal earlier this summer. […]
A member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, speaking on condition of anonymity to speak freely said, "It is frustrating and concerning that we don't have the details and yet we're going to be asked in 60 days to vote on something."
The member suggested that congressional and administration leaders negotiating a plan are holding back information either to avoid leaks or because they haven’t found enough common ground yet to share anything.
Let's just unpack that a bit, shall we? The member of the tax-writing committee is concerned that they don't know how the bill is being written, or really if it's even being written. That's your Republican Congress, folks. Supposedly there are actual negotiations happening and they are not going well, because popular vote loser Donald Trump is fixated on certain things that congressional negotiators don't think are realistic—like reducing the corporate tax rate from 35 to 15 percent—and because the thing that is necessary to getting tax reform done can't get done. That would be coming up with a 2018 budget, because they want to use budget reconciliation instructions attached to that budget to allow the tax cuts to pass with just 51 votes.
This is looking an awful lot like the unsuccessful process used to come up with a supposed Obamacare replacement bill, including having a "gang" negotiating it. In this case, they are called the "Big Six" and are comprised of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn (no longer in Trump's favor), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch.
The actual tax writing committee is supposed to be able to see the eventual results of what they're negotiating before it hits the floor, but it seems like individual members don't have much trust in their leadership that that's going to happen.