We’ll dig through the tax reform details as they become available.  However, pragmatic #MAGA Trump supporters would be wise not to get too far out in advance of supporting this GOPe tax reform package yet.

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The reason for caution is quite simple.  Notice the players, the key constructionists. These are the exact same Decepticons who constructed the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) trade deal, and who operate in DC on behalf of their multinational corporate sponsors and benefactors. The representatives within this press conference are the EXACT SAME members who constructed TPP and pushed Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) to ensure its legislative passage.
On the broad overview so far – it would appear the Decepticons are following their traditional UniParty playbook.  Meaning they are following the road-map that continues the status quo by announcing a program not structurally established to meet the guidelines of the Trump MAGA agenda; at least as it was initially described.  Much like the ruse with Obamacare repeal and replacement efforts the GOPe often do this intentionally.


Here’s the bitter pill of DC based reality on these types of issues.
CTH accepts things as they are, as they present themselves to be.
If you remember Paul Ryan and Ted Cruz teaming up to design the legislative pathway for TPA (the roadmap) which facilitated TPP (the legislative passage), you will remember their joint op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. [Their later denials were pure politics] Today’s announcement has the same branding and multinational organizational fingerprints.  The group involved is following the UniParty lobbying process.
By now everyone is familiar with the reason why Trump-Agenda legislation never came to fruition.  The campaign platform of candidate Donald Trump ran directly into the reality of the DC-based UniParty.
Lobbying groups write legislation, not political representatives. There simply is no lobbying group, the actual engineers within the administrative state who construct legislation, for the Trump-Agenda.
This simple truth behind DC operations is why federal legislation has been an ongoing nine month exercise in futility.  Everything is essentially staged UniParty operations designed to give the appearances of something, but yet retain the modern swamp construct.  An encapsulated version might be: “everything is designed to fail.”
Status quo or the inability of the administrative state to generate change, which by its very nature is adverse to the interests of the swamp, is not a flaw in the legislative system, it is a feature.  Distracting ‘loggerheads’ is inherent within the legislative design.
Once we fully accept this truism, we begin to understand why status-quo is the outcome and can see how everything else is a distraction intended to avoid the electorate catching on.
CTH has been watching each specific example, and the nuance within it, as expressed within this approach for almost a decade.  Much like the GOPe “splitter strategy, it takes a while to see, but the pattern is clear and not accidental.
Accepting this uncomfortable reality is what helps people understand why “Republican Controlled Committees” are investigating a republican president (Trump).
President Trump is not a third-party figure in Washington DC, he actually represents the 2nd party; a challenge to the Uniparty apparatus.  This makes President Trump an existential threat to the entire construct of the administrative state.

Secondly, the professionally republican, the establishment per se’, genuinely don’t care if they lose control of congress in either the House (Ryan) or Senate (McConnell).  There is nothing worrisome about GOPe losing status because there is only one party in Washington DC, the “UniParty”, with two caucuses: Democrats and Republicans.
The out-flowing legislation from the administrative state (UniParty Congress) doesn’t change when either of the two caucus members are in leadership.  The legislation is the same.  That’s why with control of the House and Senate President Obama rarely had to veto bills and the GOPe delivered on DC priorities.  Think: “Corker/Cardin” for Iran deal; think “TPA” for TPP passage; think “Omnibus” for all Obama spending, etc.
Republicans controlling the House and Senate delivered on DC priorities; and when they couldn’t they changed the rules process to allow the DC priorities to pass with less support.  Here’s where you remind yourself of *Republican* senate legislation that flipped the 60 votes for approval into 60 votes needed for denial, and passage was then possible with 40 votes (democrats).   The various bill passages give the illusion of “only democrats” passing the bills, but the reality of republicans (who are in control) changing the rules shows their unity in ideological alignment with the underlying legislation.
When you understand this process we begin to see the schemes with greater clarity.  UniParty republican leaders don’t want to be in legislative control when they have a republican president.  It makes being a UniParty member awkward, albeit not impossible, to hide.
Additionally there’s more affluence available from the minority position.  When you are in the minority the party in the DC lobbyists need your support for Majority Party UniParty constructs.  The lobbyists pay for this support.
When a party is in the majority, and you are a member within that majority, your vote position is essentially pre-determined.  Ergo your vote is less valuable to lobbyists.  When you are in the minority and the majority lobbyists need your vote of support, your vote is more valuable.  This reality is how you make money in DC.  Remember, lobbyists write the legislation – politicians are paid to support and sell that legislation.
Lobbyists create the legislative product. Politicians are the sales force.  We focus on switching out the sales people without ever considering the product remains the same.
A minority position representative can make a lot more money selling his or her vote because it’s not an expectation to support the lobbying construct like it is for the representative in the majority.
See how that works?
You can simply make more money from lobbyists in the minority; and the perks between ‘minority’ or ‘majority’ are not that much different.
In the majority you make money by selling your committee outcomes.  If you are on valuable committees you make more money.  If you are a majority chairperson of a committee you can make way more money from lobbyists.
Summary: As a representative in the minority you make money from multiple lobbyists on lots of legislation.  As a representative in the majority less people make money because only the key committee heads are valuable to the lobbying groups.   More people can make more money when in the minority.  That’s why the republican wing of the UniParty are not adverse to losing their majority status.
Lastly, when you understand this process you begin to see why Multinational Banking interests and Multinational Corporate interests, ie. “The Lobbyists”, are in full control.
The two-party political apparatus is an optical game to give voters the illusion of choice.  The reality is that both UniParty caucuses, Republicans and Democrats, all support the legislative interests of their leadership within the Administrative State, the lobbyists.