In other news, analysis commissioned by NBC News found that the Trump family could save themselves up to $1 billion under the tax cut bill passed by House Republicans today. Only 13 House Republicans voted against the bill.
Meanwhile, three former colleagues have filed a lawsuit against Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross claiming that he owns them $48 million in management fees.
Finally, Politico reports that it was Senator Tom Cotton who is primarily responsible for attaching a partial repeal of Obamacare to the Senate GOP tax cut bill.
“Hesitant would be kind,” Cotton said of leadership’s initial reaction to his pitch. It was “skeptical to outright opposed … many people were burned by our experience on health care not once, but twice in July, but again with Graham-Cassidy in September,” referring to another failed attempt to repeal Obamacare earlier this fall. [...]
One GOP senator said Republicans might have had to set the corporate rate at higher than 20 percent if not for the savings from the mandate. The move also allows them to avoid killing popular tax breaks — such as the adoption tax credit — as the House initially had to do.
“Some of the skeptics finally decided that … we were going to have to put some pretty unpalatable things in the bill and $338 billion alleviates some of the ugliness,” said the Republican senator.
As I've been saying, this obviously has nothing to do with health care. This is about preserving corporate tax cuts.