Why Trump Will Regret Passing Tax Reform

What else is keeping the GOP establishment in line behind him?

By MATT LATIMER October 18, 2017

Meeting with his Cabinet on Monday, the president of the United States, ever a believer in the axiom “overpromise and underdeliver,” vowed to sign “the largest tax cut in the history of our country.” Just as they told the president that Obamacare repeal was a brilliant, slam-dunk first move for his administration, so too his advisers are telling him that tax reform is another no-brainer. A political masterstroke.

They are wrong about that. At least, when it comes to Trump.

Since Congress appears unable or unwilling to move on almost anything, any tax cut bill—let alone the biggest and best in the history of the world, as the president envisions—will have to overcome serious challenges. But the real problem for Trump is not another legislative failure, but a victory. To paraphrase the immortal words of Admiral Ackbar, the tax cut bill is a trap. If Trump actually does sign it into law, he might as well be signing his political death warrant.

I say this not because tax cuts are a bad idea, or unpopular. Nor because tax relief will be invariably characterized, as it always is by liberals, as a giveaway to the rich. The reason the tax cut bill is a danger to Trump is that it’s the one last thing keeping the bulk of his own party in line behind him.

One of the most curious storylines in Season One of The President Trump Show is that so many Washington Republicans, inside and outside Congress, are still on board, publicly at least, with a president they clearly denigrate and despise. His own secretary of state may or may not have called his boss a moron. A respected Republican senator publicly questioned Trump’s competence and stability and said he was moving America to the brink of World War III. A special counsel is aggressively pursuing allegations of corruption and collusion that could go all the way to the Oval Office. Trump’s poll ratings are, to borrow a word, sad. He has repeatedly insulted the Republican Senate leader and his colleagues.

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http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/18/donald-trump-gop-tax-reform-mcconnell-215723