* It’s official.
TOM PRICE HAS RESIGNED pic.twitter.com/6gNw6wHW8g
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 29, 2017
* Kyle Griffin gives us the tally.
Firings/Resignations under Trump:
—Yates
—Flynn
—Walsh
—Bharara
—Comey
—Dubke
—Shaub
—Corralo
—Spicer
—Short
—Priebus
—Mooch
—Bannon
—Price— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 29, 2017
* I’m going to switch my usual order and give you my musical selection for the day a bit early in honor of the news.
* It seems to me that Roy Moore is even more Trumpian than Donald Trump.
* It sure looks like Obamacare repeal is dead – at least this year.
Senate Republicans appear to have conceded defeat on repealing ObamaCare this year, as the newly released budget resolution for fiscal year 2018 focuses almost entirely on tax reform.
The draft released Friday only includes legislating instructions to the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, which don’t have jurisdiction over health insurance.
It doesn’t direct the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee or the House Energy and Commerce Committee to craft legislation — a sign that tax reform has become the new priority and that Republican plans for ObamaCare repeal are on ice.
* For Republicans, concerns over the federal deficit are soooo last year.
The Senate Budget Committee unveiled a budget resolution for 2018 on Friday that would allow the party to shield its tax reform bill from a Democratic filibuster.
The budget would allow the tax reform package to increase the deficit by $1.5 trillion over a decade…
* Here is a quick summary of the conversation that has taken place over the last two days on the Republican tax cut framework:
Republicans and Trump: We’re proposing the biggest tax cuts in the country’s history.
Reporters: It’s a sham – producing more questions than answers. For example, you propose to consolidate individual tax brackets but don’t define the brackets.
Trump: The biggest winners will be middle class workers and rich people like me won’t benefit.
Tax Policy Center: OK, we’ll do an analysis.
Aaand, we have the Tax Policy Center analysis https://t.co/I6ztRHbSs1. Worth comparing with Bush tax cuts https://t.co/Hd2K2KUn40 Populism! pic.twitter.com/gSL62XE61u
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) September 29, 2017
Republicans: That’s all wrong. We didn’t give you enough specifics and we can always change our minds.
Stay tuned for scenes from next week’s episode of “How Republicans play the game of heads I win, tales you lose.”
