" ... As the utter chaos that erupted as lawmakers struggled to write a year-end bill to fund the government demonstrated, the GOP has a tenuous grip on the House. President-elect Donald Trump has a penchant for chaos. And Republicans are at odds over a long list of issues, beginning with whether they should take up tax first this year or immigration.
After weeks of negotiations, it looks like they’ll begin with the border. ..."
[As for the tax bill, there is a lot still for the GOP to negotiate amongst themselves, for starters, to "cover" the $4 Trillion price tag.]
"... [Senate Finance Chair] Crapo says extending current policy, like the tax cuts from Trump’s first term that are set to expire at the end of this year, shouldn’t cost anything. Nor should what he calls “pro-growth” provisions — leaving only new ideas that don’t do much for the economy needing offsets.
... Republicans have already offered a long list of possibilities: higher tariffs, increasing the college endowment tax, cutting green energy credits, rescinding IRS funding, cutting other government spending, among many others.
There’s a chicken-and-egg quality to the debate though, because it’s hard to know how much they need to raise when they haven’t decided how much to spend. And lawmakers will be subject to furious lobbying by those worried they’re on the menu.
... If Republicans decide not to worry too much about the price tag, one way to paper over the projected hit to the deficit would be to change the yardstick used to measure the cost of their plans.
Normally, bills are compared to what’s in the law now, which would require taking account the cost of extending the expiring tax cuts. But Crapo wants to instead compare it to current policy, which would mean extending them would appear to cost nothing.
That would sidestep the need for big payfors and make it easier to extend the provisions for a long time. ..."
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So just pretend that tax cuts cost nothing and you are generating magical thinking amounts of income from tariffs and POOF no problemo. We'll be ROLLING in dough.