GOP/HOUSE OF REPS/TAXES/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “House Republican leaders on Tuesday [11-14-17] were working to lock in votes for a 10-year, $1.4 trillion tax cut up for consideration this week, a task complicated by lingering worries among rank-and-file lawmakers about whether President Donald Trump would turn against them in favor of the Senate’s version.
Emerging from a closed-door House GOP conference meeting, most Republicans said that they expected to vote for the tax legislation, which calls for deep cuts in corporate rates, a collapse in individual tax brackets to four from seven, and the eventual repeal of the estate tax.
Among the biggest outstanding worries was whether Mr. Trump would criticize their plan, as he did during a health-care fight earlier this year, and whether Senate Republicans would be able to pass tax legislation and avoid a repeat of the tensions that doomed their health-care bill…
The House is expected to vote on its tax bill on Thursday, while the Senate is expected to vote on its version the week after Thanksgiving. In the House, Republicans can lose no more than 22 votes if they are to pass the bill without the support of Democrats, who have remained unified against the bill. The math is even harder in the Senate, where Republicans control 52 seats and need 50 votes for passage.”
-Siobhan Hughes and Kristina Peterson, “House GOP Members Worry About Trump’s Commitment to Their Tax Bill,” The Wall Street Journal online, Nov. 14, 2017 01:53pm