WH plans to negotiate tax overhaul in private
‘No prolonged negotiations’
WASHINGTON, June 21, (AP): The White House plans to privately negotiate a massive overhaul of the tax system with Republican leaders in Congress, possibly giving rank-and-file members little if any say over the finished product, according to a top aide to President Donald Trump.
Gary Cohn, Trump’s top economic aide, said Tuesday the administration doesn’t want to engage in prolonged negotiations after the package is made public this fall. Cohn said the goal is to release the overhaul in the first two weeks of September.
“We don’t want to be negotiating the tax bill on the floor,” Cohn said at a meeting of technology executives.
This type of top-down approach has a sketchy record on Capitol Hill, especially on issues as difficult to maneuver as the first remake of the nation’s tax code in 31 years. Earlier this year, House members balked when Trump officials demanded that they vote on a bill to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s health law.
The House narrowly passed the bill only after lengthy negotiations among lawmakers.
Senate Republicans have been widely criticized for crafting their health care bill behind closed doors, with even some in the GOP complaining about the secretive process.
Nonetheless, Republican leaders put a happy face on their efforts Tuesday, despite offering no evidence of progress in overcoming their differences.
“Let’s not talk about why we can’t do something. Let’s talk about how fantastic things will be if we get this done,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis, told the National Association of Manufacturers. “Let’s not talk about this little tax break or that little tax break. Let’s talk about the big picture.”
Unveiled
In April, the administration unveiled a one-page proposal that called for massive tax cuts for businesses and a bigger standard tax deduction for middle-income families, lower investment taxes for the wealthy and an end to the federal estate tax for the superrich — like the president and his family.
The plan also calls for eliminating the federal deduction for state and local taxes, a proposal opposed by Democrats and some Republicans in states like New York, New Jersey and California.
Ryan said he is confident Congress can pass a tax package by the end of the year, despite political divisions among Republicans and a crowded legislative agenda for Congress.
He acknowledged it won’t be easy. But he preached against settling for something less than a complete overhaul of the tax system. A growing number of Republicans say they would rather just cut taxes than take on the difficult task of simplifying the tax code, which would include eliminating many tax breaks to finance lower overall tax rates.
“We will not wait for a path free of obstacles because it does not exist. And we will not cast about for quick fixes and half-measures,” Ryan said. “Transformational tax reform can be done, and we are moving forward. Full speed ahead.”
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office released a statement calling Ryan’s remarks “minor platitudes for hard-working Americans,” short on specifics.
It has been about a year since Ryan and other House Republicans released a blueprint for how they would overhaul the tax code. Yet Ryan didn’t provide any additional information about his tax plan or the state of negotiations among White House officials and Republican leaders in Congress. Georgia’s 6th Congressional district Republican candidate Karen Handel gives a victory speech to supporters gathered at the Hyatt Regency at Villa Christina on June 20 in Atlanta,
Georgia. (AFP)
Sessions hires private attorney:
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has become the latest senior Trump administration official to hire a private attorney, a Justice Department spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
Sessions has retained Washington-based lawyer Charles Cooper, whom spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores described as a long-time friend of the former senator.
She did not say when Cooper was hired or whether he would be Sessions’ defense lawyer in the federal probe into alleged Russian interference in last year’s presidential election and possible collusion by Trump’s campaign team.
Cooper was present at Sessions’ confirmation hearing and again when he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month.
Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation in early March, shortly after news reports surfaced of his previously undisclosed contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. (RTRS)
‘Reject Trump appeal’:
Opponents of President Donald Trump’s ban on travelers from six Muslim-majority countries again urged the US Supreme Court on Tuesday to reject his bid to revive it, saying his administration undermined its own arguments by amending the order last week.
In court papers filed with the justices, lawyers for the state of Hawaii and individual plaintiffs in Maryland made note of a June 14 memo by the administration amending the executive order to let the government conduct an internal review of vetting procedures for people entering the country.
The order signed by Trump on March 6 called for a 90-day ban on travelers from Libya, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and a 120-day ban on all refugees entering the United States to give the government time to implement stronger vetting procedures.
“This memorandum conclusively severs the already tenuous relationship between the bans and their ostensible rationale by making it clear that the order’s travel and refugee restrictions may begin after the vetting reviews are complete,” Hawaii’s lawyer, Neal Katyal, wrote. (RTRS)