Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, the second-longest serving U.S. senator, plans to retire at the end of his current term.  In a video shared via his twitter feed, the 83-year-old Republican announced today his plan to leave the Senate after more than 40 years.  Senator Hatch is the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, his announcement comes after the Republican tax plan he helped to create was signed into law.

[…] “When the president visited Utah last month, he said I was a fighter. I’ve always been a fighter. I was an amateur boxer in my youth, and I brought that fighting spirit with me to Washington. But every good fighter knows when to hang up the gloves. And for me, that time is soon approaching. That’s why, after much prayer and discussion with family and friends, I’ve decided to retire at the end of this term. Although I will miss serving you in the Senate, I look forward to spending more time with family, especially my sweet wife Elaine, whose unwavering love and support made all of this possible.”

2018 was looking to be a difficult year for Senator Hatch as he was caught between his newly espoused loyalty to President Trump and his life-long relationship with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
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Interesting discussion today between Senator Lindsey Graham and CBS journalist Major Garrett.  Senator Graham went through a myriad of issues, from his specific perspective, including: Iran (and current protests), North Korea (nukes), DACA, Robert Mueller and the Russian Dossier.

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Well, that didn’t take long.  About a decade ago we needed a phrase to describe a very specific set of republican senators, thus originated the term “Decepticons”.
Decepticons are different from traditional ‘establishment’ types in that they are a cloistered club, a sub-set of the upper-tier within the GOPe, and they protect their exclusive position because of the payments and benefits they receive from an individual lobbyist, Tom Donohue.

Tom Donohue is the President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest single lobbying group in all of Washington DC.   Donohue represents the interests of massive financial institutions and multinational corporations.  Donohue receives hundreds of millions from his corporate conglomerates; and he controls the distribution of tens-of-millions toward individual senators on capitol hill who agree to uphold those interests.
A ‘Decepticon’ will NEVER break ranks with the Chamber. EVER.  Regardless of the Chamber position.  That character trait is what makes them uniquely “Decepticons.”

WASHINGTON DC – Senate Republicans are growing frustrated with what they see as a lack of clear direction in President Trump’s trade agenda, which they warn is hurting U.S. exporters.
Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee vented their concerns in a recent meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

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It is important to remember the Washington Post is the unofficial public relations outfit of the U.S. intelligence community: FBI, CIA, etc.  When a leaked source, or insider release of information appears within the Washington Post, it is there by collaboration with the intelligence community.
That said, the story today about Assistant FBI Director Andrew McCabe planning to retire in March 2018, should be viewed as the WaPo attempting to create leverage for McCabe to retain his position up to his pension eligibility.  It is NOT coincidental that Inspector General Michael Horowitz is planning to release his Year-Long OIG report outlining his investigative details into the politicization of the FBI and DOJ.

This maneuver by “Andy” McCabe is similar to moves by his former boss James Comey. McCabe is trying to gain leverage over a pending IG report release and ongoing congressional investigations that recently have begun to run a parallel track. By publicizing his intent to leave the FBI ahead of all the investigative outcomes being public, McCabe is attempting to change his central disposition to the scandals.
The Washington Post report is shaped to deliver a specific narrative about Andrew McCabe and assist his positioning.  The absence of any WaPo mention of the FBI counterintelligence operation, “The Trump Project”, including the absence of any mention of the FBI involvement in the Steele Dossier (FISA Warrants, Wiretaps and Surveillance), and the myriad of explosive issues therein, is evidence of WaPo’s motive:

WASHINGTON – Andrew McCabe, the FBI’s deputy director who has been the target of Republican critics for more than a year, plans to retire in a few months when he becomes fully eligible for pension benefits, according to people familiar with the matter.

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The Super-MAGA-Winning continues with more companies joining the Christmas Bonus parade.   Amid the passage of the tax reform package in congress, numerous companies have announced their intention to pass out Christmas bonuses to employees.

Previously:  ♦AT&T announced $1,000 bonuses for 200,000 employees (link); ♦Wells Fargo Bank announced they were raising the minimum wage to $15/hr and planned on donating $400 million to charity (link); ♦Fifth-Third Bankcorp joined in with its own plan for $15 minimum wages and $1,000 bonuses for 1,500 employees (link); and ♦Comcast announced they were giving $1,000 bonuses to more than 100,000 of their employees (link).
Today, the tax benefits continue: ♦Sinclair Broadcasting announced they would pass out $1,000 Christmas bonuses to over 9,000 eligible workers (link).  Not to be left out, ♦Bank of America announced $1,000 bonuses for 145,000 American workers (link); and ♦Billionaire businessman Bob Parsons joins in with $1,000 and $2,000 bonuses to each of his 600+ employees (link).

…”The passage of the tax credit is a catalyst for explosive economic growth. On a massive scale, the lowered federal tax burden on businesses will increase investment, entrepreneurship and corporate philanthropy,” said Parsons. “I’ve always believed in sharing good news and have decided to celebrate the tax plan by giving back to my staff.”…

Our big and very popular Tax Cut and Reform Bill has taken on an unexpected new source of “love” – that is big companies and corporations showering their workers with bonuses. This is a phenomenon that nobody even thought of, and now it is the rage. Merry Christmas!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2017

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After reporting for weeks on the DNC talking points about how horrible Trump was going to trick them with tax cuts, CBS News engineers lost one of their false narratives today.  Despite their earnest efforts, they were forced to broadcast financial results from three families they used as representative examples of the Trump tax plan.
The weeks-long media spin ran into the wall of reality: (Via CBS) “We asked an accountant to crunch the numbers for three working families to see how much they could be saving. Tony Dokoupil reports.”  WATCH:

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In an effort to meet the goal of signing the Tax Cut Bill before Christmas, and in order to initiate the tax reforms in FY 2018, President Trump signs the tax reform bill today in the oval office.
President Trump also delivered remarks to the media on a variety of topics.

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[Transcript] 10:45 A.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. Thank you very much for being here, and Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. Have great holidays.
We are going to sign some very important things today. One is a continuing resolution that very importantly gives us the right, and we are ordering $4 billion worth of missile defense equipment and missiles themselves. Very important. Top of the line. Best in the world. We make the best military product in the world, and nobody is even close.
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Earlier today Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell held a year-end press conference to discuss the results of 2017:

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Oh, we have no idea yet how big and consequential the synergy between all of President Trump’s economic policies are toward an almost unfathomable MAGAnomic result; but we’ll find out really soon, BIGLY.
The international community is just now beginning to recognize how intensely sequential the domestic MAGAnomic tax policy is when combined with the international America-First trade policy therein.

2018 will be the year when every international trade partner reassess their best financial interests; and with the tax outline codified into law, POTUS Trump, Secretary Ross, Secretary Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer are about to initiate the biggest multinational trade shift in the history of international economics.
Yes folks, I’m actually talking about that phase when we discover we are living within the orbit of: “almost too much winning”.   This is where we begin to recognize that 5%, 6% and even 7% GDP growth is easily attainable. Here’s how it works.
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WHITE HOUSE – AMERICA’S ECONOMY IS FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS: President Donald J. Trump has unleashed America’s economic growth engine and ushered in a new era of economic optimism.

• Under President Trump, nearly 1.7 million new jobs have been created.
  • 159,000 jobs have been created in the manufacturing industry.
  • 57,000 jobs have been created in the mining and logging industries.

• The unemployment rate has fallen to 4.1 percent, the lowest in nearly 17 years.
  • Thirteen States have reached record low unemployment rates.

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the United States has grown by more than 3 percent in the last two quarters.
  • The GDP growth rate was 3.3 percent in the third quarter of this year.
  • The GDP growth rate was 3.1 percent in the second quarter of this year.
• Productivity in the United States economy grew to 3 percent last quarter.

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