Playbook: “Administration officials are running around town saying they will complete tax reform by August, but for now, top White House aides are in open war over a central component of an overhaul: the House GOP idea to tax imports instead of exports. Instead of deciding on a strategy internally and promoting it, the aides have been shadow boxing, expressing different opinions in private settings with reporters and business leaders.”

“Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary who is in his first job in D.C., is publicly saying he is confident in having a comprehensive tax reform bill signed by August, which has elicited head shakes and chuckles all over town. There is no bill — or anything close — and many of the Treasury aides who would be working on tax reform aren’t even in place. Most people see early 2018 as a more likely target date, considering the president has promised health care repeal and replace, $30 billion in emergency spending, a border wall with Mexico, not to mention they need to lift the debt ceiling and fund the government. And the president’s budget — the key element in tax reform — is, for now, dead on arrival.”