“Republican congressional leaders don’t expect to release a joint tax plan with the White House next month, and they’ll rely instead on House and Senate tax-writing committees to solve the big tax questions that remain unanswered,” Bloomberg reports.

“National Economic Council Gary Cohn had said previously that a tax framework would be released after Labor Day. More recently, he indicated the White House was pushing tax efforts back to the hill.”

Playbook: “Since Republicans took the House majority in 2010, the debt ceiling has been lifted eight times. It’s a bit easier in the Senate than the House, so let’s focus on the House. Most of the time, the majority of House Republicans don’t vote to lift the cap. For example, in 2015, 167 House Republicans voted no, and just 79 voted yes. In 2014, 28 voted yes and 199 voted no. House Republicans twice were able to muster big numbers: in 2012, 199 Republicans voted yes and 33 voted no when Congress promised to withhold pay from lawmakers should they not pass a budget. In 2011, 174 House Republicans voted yes and 66 voted no on the Budget Control Act, a piece of legislation that set up steep budget cuts — the sequester — which President Trump has said he would like to reverse.”

“This is a defining issue for Republicans. In recent years, Republicans have eased up on their demands on the debt limit because Barack Obama took a somewhat firm stance that he was not going to negotiate. But when Republicans came into the majority in 2010, John Boehner said Republicans should cut a dollar of spending for each dollar of a debt ceiling hike. Since then, there have been pitched battles over lifting the cap.”

“Right now, Republicans are in a really, really bad spot. They have no plan, nothing on the horizon and very little time to get this done. They have president who is frustrated with Congress and distancing himself from GOP leaders.”

President Trump slammed the Republican congressional leadership in Congress on Twitter this morning:

Mike Allen and Jonathan Swan: “Top White House and GOP leadership officials tell us the chances of a market-rattling government shutdown are rising by the day — and were even before Trump threatened at his raucous Phoenix rally on Tuesday night to use a shutdown as leverage to get funding for a border wall. Trump is dead serious about this fight, a senior administration source tells us, and the president’s talk is starting to spook markets.”

One top Republican source put the chance as high as 75%: “The peculiar part is that almost everyone I talk to on the Hill agrees that it is more likely than not.”

The Hill notes that “with just 12 legislative days scheduled for September –– and the spending debate complicated by a Sept. 29 deadline to raise the debt ceiling –– the Republicans have little room for error. And Trump’s prime-time shutdown threat poses yet another hurdle, forcing GOP leaders to find a legislative sweet-spot that satisfies the president’s border-wall demand without alienating the Democrats, whose votes will be essential to keep the government running.”