Tuesday, October 24th 2017 (WASHINGTON) – President Donald Trump’s Tuesday appearance on Capitol Hill to discuss plans for tax cuts was overshadowed by an open revolt by two Republican senators, Bob Corker of Tennessee and Jeff Flake of Arizona, both senators who will be retiring from office in 2019.
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Trump unleashed on the Tennessee senator in a series of tweets calling Corker a “lightweight” who “couldn’t get elected dog catcher.” He further accused Corker of trying to fight against the GOP’s proposed tax cuts.
The battle between the president and his one-time supporter escalated ahead of the noon policy luncheon. Corker repudiated Trump as an “utterly untruthful president,” and later challenged his fitness for office saying the president was “devolving.”
The third-ranking Republican, Sen. John Thune (S.D.) expressed concerns that the feud was distracting from the GOP’s legislative agenda. Thune told reporters that he hopes Corker and Trump call off their Twitter war, adding, “I don’t think that’s in anybody’s interest. It certainly doesn’t help us get our agenda—keep focus on that.”
According to lawmakers who attended the luncheon, the spat between Corker and the president didn’t come up. Instead, the focus was on tax reform, regulatory reform, health care and confirming Trump’s nominees.
Sen. Corker did not speak to the president either before or after the policy luncheon. He told reporters, “We talk through you guys.”
The Republicans have a narrow path to tax reform and can only afford to lose two votes in the Senate.
When asked about the sometimes antagonistic relationship Trump has with Republican senators, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was confident that all the members of the conference are “on the same page.” He continued that there is “great cohesion among Republicans of all persuasions” to pass tax cuts “before the end of the year.”
However, even if the Twitter fight between Corker and Trump fizzles out, the Republicans now have a newly independent and outspoken Trump critic Jeff Flake.
Flake announced he would not seek reelection in 2018 in a dramatic speech on the Senate floor that was intensely critical of Donald Trump’s conduct in office.
“We must stop pretending that the degradation of our politics and the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. They are not normal,” Flake charged. “I rise today to say: Enough.”
The two wildcard Trump critics, unfettered from a sense of party loyalty, could possibly inject an element of uncertainty into McConnell’s equation, but without a concrete tax plan drafted, it is too soon to count votes in or out.
Corker has been supportive of tax reform, but not using the fast-track process of budget reconciliation to get there. Flake has supported tax reform and expressed confidence that it could be passed by the end of the year. Both voted for the Senate budget, a critical first step to get reform.
When the White House was asked about the Republican senators potentially jeopardizing the tax deal, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said they have “hope” that Trump’s GOP critics will be “very supportive of the tax cuts and tax reforms.”
Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) expressed a similar sentiment, saying he does not believe Flake’s decision will impact the GOP efforts.
During the lunch, Risch said, the president had a 30-minute monologue on policy and issues, but “very little on politics.” Following that there was a “calm and well-reasoned [discussion] on tax reform.”
Other Republicans were dismissive of yet another high-profile dispute between the president and a member of their caucus. Trump has repeatedly used social media to attack Republicans who fail to advance his agenda, including Flake, Corker, McConnell and others.
“I try to stay out of the Washington battle of personalities and keep my focus on substance and results,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Trump relentless criticized Cruz on the campaign trail, but they have since patched their relationship.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) insisted that the friction between the president and key senators had not changed Republicans’ agenda, saying he believes Bob Corker will come around to support the tax cuts.
“At the end of the day,” Ryan said, “[Corker] is going to vote for tax reform because he knows it’s in the best interest of Americans. So put this Twitter dispute aside. … All this stuff you see on a daily basis on Twitter this, and Twitter that. Forget about it.”
On Thursday the House will face their first hurdle in getting through the president’s tax cuts when they vote on the Senate’s $4 trillion budget. That budget paves the way for $1.5 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade, cuts that are not funded by offsets or pay-fors.
While the possibility of adding another trillion dollars to the debt has given some conservatives in the House heartburn, many are willing to take their chances and pass the budget, in the hopes that their policy will increase GDP growth.
“It’ the chicken and the egg syndrome,” said Rep Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), arguing that passing the budget opens the door to tax reform which he believes will put the economy on a path to grow at 3 to 5 percent GDP. “That’s gonna help us with addressing our debt crisis.”
The White House has been waging an aggressive months-long campaign in public and in private meetings to make good on his promise to cut taxes.
“If we get this done, it will be historic,” Trump said last week. “It will be bigger than any plan…ever. It will be the biggest tax cuts in the history of our country.”
Trump took that pressure campaign to House Republicans over the weekend in a high-stakes conference call where he reportedly told congressmen to support the Senate budget or face certain defeat in the 2018 election.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a senior member of the Budget Committee, said the president’s intervention was “very dramatic,” but ultimately fair.
“You have to deliver,” he said. “We got hurt badly when the Senate failed to do health care. We can’t afford a second self-inflicted wound like that.”
The House GOP leadership is still confident that tax reform is on track to pass the House by Thanksgiving. The Senate could be trickier, but lawmakers anticipate it will get done before the end of the year.
