POLITICS/TAXES: “Senate Republicans made clear on Tuesday [8-1-17] that they want to chart their own course to focus on a tax overhaul and critical fiscal legislation, bypassing requests from President Donald Trump and White House officials to keep health care their top legislative priority.
In his first press conference since a GOP health bill collapsed in the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) on Tuesday left health legislation off the list of items to be voted on before the chamber leaves for recess later this month, despite Mr. Trump’s calls for the Senate to dive back in.
Mr. McConnell, who has said he prefers to keep disagreements with the president private, also disclosed that he had told Mr. Trump that most senators don’t support changing the chamber’s rules to allow bills to pass on a simple majority vote, as the president urged on Twitter several times in the past week…
Mr. McConnell was one of several senators in recent days who have resisted White House entreaties on health care, often expressed in language that is frank for leaders of the same party.”
-Siobhan Hughes, Natalie Andrews, and Janet Hook, “Senate Republicans Rebuff Donald Trump’s Health-Care Push,” The Wall Street Journal online, Aug. 1, 2017 07:39pm