“Republicans on Capitol Hill are focused on one thing this week: the budget. The House and Senate need to pass budgets — and sign off on a single product in conference — in order to get a bill ready to pass tax reform,” according to Jonathan Swan.

“House GOP leaders have the votes needed to pass their budget this week, according to sources throughout the conference.”

“The Senate will have a tougher time with its Budget, which is being marked up in committee this week. Senators Bob Corker and Pat Toomey struck a budget deal that pleasantly surprised tax reform advocates – but with 52 Republicans every vote is on a razor’s edge. Republicans are paying close attention to the perennially-challenging senators: John McCain, Susan Collins, and Rand Paul.”

Stan Collender: “While they say they expect that some Democrats will support the tax cut, the decision to exclude them from the planning process — the Big Six consisted of four congressional Republicans and two members of the Trump administration — means that it is anything but bipartisan. Because of that, and given the lack of any economic imperative and the substantive problems with the proposed tax cut (especially that it would harm taxpayers in blue states), House and Senate Democrats are far less likely to support the plan in its current incarnation than Trump, Ryan and McConnell are hoping.”

“That will make every GOP vote critical to passing the Trump tax cut and, as of a last Friday, significantly large groups of Republicans in both houses of Congress had already made it clear that they could not vote for the plan as drafted. Without any Democrats supporting the bill, McConnell will only be able to lose two Republican senators and still pass the bill. As of last Friday, there were more than two who were expressing doubts about their support.”