Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) told about 100 constituents at a town hall meeting that he’s still undecided on the GOP tax bill, the Topeka Capital-Journal reports.
Said Moran: “I’m also cognizant of what people saw happen in Kansas. The issue of tax cuts would be easier if you actually had faith that Congress would hold the line on spending. It’s two components. It’s how much revenue you take in and how much money you continue to spend.”
Melania Trump only urged President Trump to run for office out of exasperation at his constantly toying with the idea, Vanity Fair reports.
Said a longtime friend of the Trump family: “This isn’t something she wanted and it isn’t something he ever thought he’d win. She didn’t want this come hell or high water. I don’t think she thought it was going to happen.”
“What’s the fucking point? Keep the fight up? History will judge that campaign, and it’s always a period of time before they do. You’ve got to move on. This is Hillary’s problem right now: She doesn’t have anything to do.”
— Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), quoted by Esquire, saying Hillary Clinton made a mistake writing her campaign memoir, What Happened, so soon after her defeat.
Mike Allen: “Capitol Hill veterans expect that ‘a lot more’ sexual-harassment settlements by lawmakers will be uncovered. So now there’s a race to strengthen workplace rules that are scandalously archaic.”
“The existing system is a racket. Settlements are secret, and the Ethics Committee is notorious for protecting its own. We — as in all of us taxpayers — pay the hush money, because that’s who foots the bills for these settlements. Only a few lawmakers have publicly pushed for broad, quick change.”
“It’s do-or-die time for Senate Republicans on tax reform. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) doesn’t appear to have locked down 50 votes for his party’s tax overhaul, with at least half a dozen GOP senators showing varying levels of concern about the legislation released earlier this month,” Politico reports.
“Yet the GOP leadership has a narrow window to push through its tax bill in the Senate before lawmakers become consumed with spending fights that could trigger a shutdown, not to mention a special election in Alabama that could flip a reliable Republican vote to a not-so-reliable one — or even a Democrat.”
Playbook: “If the Senate can get its tax bill through this week, there’s a good chance Congress could get a bill to President Donald Trump’s desk by the end of the year. Everything would need to fall into place, but it’s possible. If the Senate takes more than just this week to get it done, it will likely slip into next year.”
For members: Lose These Three Senators and the Tax Bill Is Dead
“Bernie Sanders is taking steps to address longstanding political shortcomings that were exposed in 2016, ahead of another possible presidential bid in 2020,” Politico reports.
“From forging closer ties to the labor movement to shoring up his once-flimsy foreign policy credentials, the moves have provided the senator inroads into party power structures that largely shunned him in favor of Hillary Clinton last year. They’ve also empowered the progressive icon to harness his newfound political power and help Democrats fight President Trump’s administration.”
“The Senate Republican tax plan gives substantial tax cuts and benefits to Americans earning more than $100,000 a year, while the nation’s poorest would be worse off, according to a report released Sunday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office,” the Washington Post reports.
“By 2019, Americans earning less than $30,000 a year would be worse off under the Senate bill, CBO found. By 2021, Americans earning $40,000 or less would be net losers, and by 2027, most people earning less than $75,000 a year would be worse off. On the flip side, millionaires and those earning $100,000 to $500,000 would be big beneficiaries, according to CBO calculations.”
“The main reason the poor get hit so hard in the Senate GOP bill is because the poor would receive less government aid for health care.”
“Lawmakers are facing mounting pressure to end Capitol Hill’s culture of secrecy over sexual harassment as they return from a holiday break, with members of both parties calling for Congress to overhaul its handling of misconduct claims and to unmask lawmakers who have paid settlements using taxpayer money,” the New York Times reports.
”The House is expected this week to adopt a bipartisan resolution mandating that all members and their staffs participate in anti-harassment and anti-discrimination training; the Senate has already adopted such a resolution. The more difficult task will be passing legislation that overhauls the way sexual harassment claims are handled.”
Jonathan Swan points to this passage in Harry Hurt’s 1993 book, Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump, which explains how Trump reacted after a string of high-profile reports that suggested his real net worth was far below what he claimed:
Donald responds with a desperate disinformation campaign… He orders his public relations network to plant rumors in the tabloid press that he is sitting on a multibillion-dollar treasure trove of cash. New York Post columnist Cindy Adams is the first — but by no means the last — to take the bait.
“Everyone’s heard tales about how poor D.T. is leveraged out, how even his Taj is up for grabs because he needs money. Bullbleep,” Adams writes in her column of May 22, 1990. Alluding to a Forbes cover story without mentioning it by name, she declares that Donald is hardly down to his last half billion dollars. “How these august respectable financial journals overlooked certain hidden pockets in Donald’s wallet, I haven’t the foggiest… This guy is sitting on 4 billion. Cash. Billion with a ‘b.'”
“If this is who we are or who we are becoming, I have wasted 40 years of my life. Until now it was not possible for me to conceive of an American President capable of such an outrageous assault on truth, a free press or the first amendment.”
— Gen. Michael Hayden, on Twitter, in response to a tweet from President Trump.
William Saletan: “The battle within the Republican Party has come down to this: Is it OK for a 32-year-old man to seduce a 14-year-old girl?”
“On one side are the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Speaker Paul Ryan. They have disowned Roy Moore, the party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate in Alabama, over allegations that he targeted, and in some cases molested, minors and other teen girls. On the other side are social conservatives, including Alabama’s state auditor, who argue that courtship between an older man and a teenage girl is consensual, biblical, good for the girl, and grounded in the natural attraction of a godly man to the ‘purity of a young woman.’ Alongside the purity camp is the tolerance camp, led by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey. These Republicans don’t deny the allegations or endorse Moore’s conduct, but they support him anyway, reasoning that other issues are more important.”
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) broke his eight-day silence Sunday, after keeping a low profile since four different women shared accounts of being groped, embarrassed and, in one case, forcibly kissed, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
Said Franken: “I’m embarrassed and ashamed. I’ve let a lot of people down and I’m hoping I can make it up to them and gradually regain their trust.”
He noted that he has posed for “tens of thousands of photos” over the years, but does not remember any that ended with his hand sliding down to cup women’s backsides: “I don’t remember these photographs, I don’t. This is not something I would intentionally do.”
Franken also gave an interview to Minnesota Public Radio.
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) is stepping down as the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee pending an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment, The Hill reports.
President Trump suggested to a senator earlier this year that the “Access Hollywood” video — in which he boasted about grabbing women’s genitalia — “was not authentic, and repeated that claim to an adviser more recently,” the New York Times reports.
Of course, “in the hours after it was revealed in October 2016, Mr. Trump acknowledged that the voice was his, and he apologized.”
“Democrats running in a crowded primary race for Iowa governor are confronting an uncomfortable reality: Their party’s reputation is in tatters in rural Iowa,” the Des Moines Register reports.
“Democrats’ challenges in rural Iowa are plain to see in its electoral history over the last four election cycles. Since 2010, the party has lost six of seven races for president, governor or U.S. senator. Across those six losses, the party won just 15 of Iowa’s 99 counties; in five of those losses, the Democratic candidate carried fewer than 10 counties.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said that “failure is not an option” when it comes to the GOP’s effort on tax reform, The Hill reports.
Said Graham: “The economy needs a tax cut and the Republican Party needs to deliver, so I think we’ll get there.”
Ryan Lizza: “Tuesday’s meeting at the White House between Trump and congressional leaders from both parties is meant to avoid a December 8th government shutdown. How much Republicans are willing to give Democrats may depend on the status of the G.O.P. tax bill. There are at least half a dozen G.O.P. senators with serious policy concerns regarding the tax proposal. And there are three Republican senators—John McCain and Jeff Flake, of Arizona, and Bob Corker, of Tennessee—who dislike Trump so much that they may be looking for reasons to oppose any legislation that empowers his Presidency. Republicans already have a ready-made conservative reason: the proposed tax changes will increase the deficit by $1.5 trillion.”
“If the tax bill is cruising through the Senate—McConnell wants a vote next week—there may be less incentive for Republicans to risk a shutdown. But if it dies next week, or is delayed, Trump will be under intense pressure to avoid ending the year with no major legislative accomplishments—and the chaos of a government shutdown. In order to keep the government running, Trump would have to strike another deal with Pelosi and Schumer and sign a bipartisan spending deal that includes major Democratic priorities.”
“As a result, Trump would end his first year in office with no Republican legislative accomplishments and two deals with Pelosi and Schumer that boost the Democratic agenda. If that seems likely to happen, it would enrage conservatives and the Republican base. For Trump, December could be the month that makes or breaks his first year in office.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.