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From The Reporter’s Notebook
TPM’s Tierney Sneed reported on the implications of the GOP repealing Obamacare’s major taxes right away without having a replacement. The topic of the tax cut, which mainly benefits high earners, came up in a scrum on Capitol Hill earlier this month with Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), a member of the GOP leadership team. “When you take a look at what was put on the presidents desk last year, which he vetoed, it included a repeal of all of the taxes that were part of the health care law. So if we put the exact same piece on President-elect Trump’s desk when he arrives….” he said, before a reporter asked if that was the plan. “We’re having discussions about it,” Barrasso said, adding that they’re looking at “additional things” to “see what we’re able to get as part of this Obamacare repeal resolution.”
Agree or Disagree?
Josh Marshall: “I don’t mean to suggest that the Democrats’ situation is hopeless. The numbers of supporters are still roughly equal in presidential years. The Republicans have benefitted over the last eight years from a halting recovery to the great recession (which they were partly to blame for) and by the unpopularity of the Affordable Care Act, Barack Obama’s signature program, as well as by the rise of ISIS, and continuation of terrorist attacks in the United States. That allowed them to run as the candidates promising change without specifying exactly what those changes would consist of. But now, with Republicans in charge, the shoe is on the other foot.”
Say What?!
“I mean, you are going crazy.”
– Trump said Friday night that his supporters were “vicious” and “violent” during his campaign because they “wanted to win.”
BUZZING: Today in the Hive
From a TPM Prime member: “Seems that the obvious constitutional issues around conflicts of interest (foreign guests staying at Trump’s DC hotel and thereby putting money in his pocket) would alone be sufficient if Congress cared to pursue these. And they could start the process on Inauguration Day. It seems very unlikely that Trump will divest before he is sworn in. But equally unlikely that a Republican congress would lead impeachment effort, without at least a very determined and sustained campaign to pressure them to do so.”
Related: An auction offering the winner “30-45 minutes” of time to meet with Ivanka Trump was canceled after it came under scrutiny.
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What We’re Reading
113 objectively good things that happened in 2016. (Vice)
The extinction crisis is far worse than you think. (CNN)
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