President Trump was in Asia while all the heavy lifting on the tax bill was going on in Washington. But now he’s back in the saddle, ready to swing deals and rein in wavering lawmakers as both the House and Senate begin to take consequential votes.
President Trump was in Asia while all the heavy lifting on the tax bill was going on in Washington. But now he’s back in the saddle, ready to swing deals and rein in wavering lawmakers as both the House and Senate begin to take consequential votes.
Mr. Trump will be on the phone with Republican holdouts, hosting lawmakers at the White House and closely coordinating with GOP leaders to corral the votes needed for a tax reform bill that is at the center of the president’s economic agenda.
“There is going to be very active engagement,” a White House official said.
The president mostly kept his cards close to his vest on key details of the reforms. But he’ll have to start wheeling and dealing on issues ranging from the fate of state and local tax deductions, or SALT, to the size of the expanded child tax credit.
Mr. Trump launched a similarly aggressive outreach to lawmakers during the attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare. The outreach included the president hosting senators and their families at White House dinners and posing in group photos with them. He later described the shmoozing as a chore.
That effort, however, faltered, and the bill failed in the Senate by a single Republican vote.
The White House insisted this time will be different.
“This is probably the most unified that the White House and the Hill Republicans have been on an issue, and we are very, very optimistic that we will be able to deliver on this,” a senior administration official said.
Mr. Trump returned late Tuesday from a nearly two-week trip to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.
He was on separate phone calls Wednesday with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, to strategize the path forward on the tax bills.
Huddling Thursday with House GOP members at the Capitol before they put the tax reform package to a vote, the president is expected to both applaud the progress getting the bill to the floor and muster last-minute votes for passage.
Mr. Trump is pleased with the shape the bills have taken, according to White House sources, and he is determined to keep the process on track to get the bill to his desk by Christmas.
There is a long tradition of horse trading by presidents to get major legislation through Congress.
Former President Bill Clinton took the practice to extreme levels and was criticized for “buying votes” with carveouts and pork spending.
To get the North American Free Trade Agreement across the finish line, Mr. Clinton resorted to a dizzying array of deals. Political activist Ralph Nader at the time said Mr. Clinton was “buying these votes, offering an assorted variety of ‘pork’ and taxpayer-funded goodies in order to obtain one vote after another.”
Former President George W. Bush was more subtle, perhaps because of the example of his predecessor. But he still engaged in plenty of political arm-twisting to get his priorities passed, including on the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit.
Former President Obama wasn’t shy about pressuring lawmakers. He publicly pushed Capitol Hill Democrats to force through the health care bill now known as Obamacare using budget reconciliation rules that prevented a filibuster.
The tax reform bills are moving through Congress under the same rules.
Although Mr. Ryan joked before Mr. Trump left on the Asia trip that his absence would avoid any interference when the House bill was introduced, the president has not been completely absent from the process.
He managed with a tweet to prod the Senate to include the repeal of the Obamacare mandate in its bill, freeing up $300 billion over 10 years to help pay for some of the tax cuts.
From here on out, though, the president will exert a hands-on influence.
