FOCUS – AT 12:31 P.M. ET:  Republicans in Congress are sending a very powerful message that they are determined to get a tax bill finished soon, despite major obstacles.  Clearly burned by their failure to repeal and replace Obamacare, GOP leaders know that they must produce a major tax cut in order to go into the 2018 election year on a winning note.  From The Hill: 

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Monday that the indictments in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation wouldn't hinder congressional Republicans' goal of overhauling the tax code.

“Nothing’s going to derail what we’re doing in Congress,” Ryan said on WTAQ’s "The Jerry Bader Show."

Prosecutors on Monday announced indictments against Paul Manafort, former chairman of Trump's presidential campaign, and Manafort's former business partner Rick Gates. Separately, they also announced that former Trump campaign aide George Papadopolous had pleaded guilty last month to lying to investigators.

The new developments in Mueller's investigation come just days before Wednesday's release of a tax bill by the House Ways and Means Committee.

Ryan said that lawmakers are focused on working on solving Americans' problems, which includes providing a remedy to the slow economic growth that has occurred in recent years. 

“Nothing derails us from focusing on that,” he said.

The speaker added that tax reform is "all about getting bigger paychecks, it’s all about fairness and simplicity.” 

COMMENT:  The indictments thus far, as we noted in our first post today, were less than bombshells.  Late reports from the tax-bill writers is that they've restored at least some of the deductions for state and local taxes that were originally in the bill, after protests from Republicans from high-tax states.  There seems a willingness to compromise and improve.

The key point in the tax legislation is that Congress must deliver the size tax cut that is promised.  People must see it in their paychecks, not just in the newspaper.  The GOP is promising an average $4,000 per year for middle-class families.  Republicans have to deliver that, or something close to it.  Remember that the party-line press will immediately emphasize what benefits are given to the top two percent, and compare them to the benefits given to middle-class Americans. 

It is very hard to predict how a tax bill passed by the House will fare in the Senate, where the GOP only has a two-vote majority.  That will be the key test, although both Senators Corker and Flake, devout Trump opponents, have said that their votes on tax legislation will not be influenced by their feud with the president.  I hope that's correct.

October 30, 2017