Republican Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee, Jeff Flake and John McCain of Arizona could now kill the Trump administration’s push to reform the U.S. tax code and other key legislative goals in 2017.
Republicans currently hold a slim 52-48 majority in the Senate, which does not provide nearly enough cushion for leadership to lose members of their own party when trying to pass legislation. The party is currently trying to move on to tax reform after failing for nine months to repeal and replace or even fundamentally tweak Obamacare
The Senate passed a budget late Thursday evening that would allow GOP senators to continue pushing for a comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. tax code without fear of Democratic opposition derailing their efforts. The budget includes reconciliation rules, which means leadership only needs to secure to 50 yes votes to successfully shepherd a bill through the legislative body, with Vice President Mike Pence acting as the tie-breaking vote.
House leadership pledged Tuesday morning to pass the Senate’s budget, which means Corker, Flake and McCain are in a unique position to dictate the president’s agenda. Senate leadership can only afford to lose two party members before a bill is effectively dead under reconciliation. Three defections kills a bill, as it did with every attempt to reform the American health care system in 2017.
Jeff Flake
Flake announced Tuesday afternoon that he will not seek re-election in 2018, joining his Senate colleague Bob Corker . The senator was highly considered the most vulnerable Senate Republican up for re-election.
“Here’s the bottom line: The path that I would have to travel to get the Republican nomination is a path I’m not willing to take, and that I can’t in good conscience take,” Flake told The Arizona Republic in a telephone interview. “It would require me to believe in positions I don’t hold on such issues as trade and immigration and it would require me to condone behavior that I cannot condone.”
The freshmen Arizona senator has an ongoing feud with the president dating back to the 2016 presidential election.
Flake recently released a book, “Conscience of a Conservative,” that is decidedly critical of Trump and those who have supported the president.
Trump for his part has called Flake “toxic” and “WEAK.”
“I love the Great State of Arizona. Not a fan of Jeff Flake, weak on crime & border,” the president tweeted after a rally in Phoenix. Trump also threw his weight behind Flake’s primary challenger in 2018.
While Flake has voted in-line with Trump over 90 percent of the time in 2017, he has taken a firm stance against Trump’s border control and immigration policies. Flake also voted against raising the debt ceiling, keeping the government funded and providing relief for the victims of Hurricane Harvey — all of which the president supported.
“We must assume the best of our fellow man, and always look for the good. Until that days comes, we must be unafraid to stand up and speak out as if our country depends on it. Because it does,” Flake said in his retirement announcement speech Tuesday. “I plan to spend the remaining fourteen months of my senate term doing just that.”
Bob Corker
Corker and the president are trading blows on a near daily basis.
The Tennessee senator has likened the Trump administration to a reality television show and called the White House an “adult daycare” center.
The president tweeted Tuesday morning that Corker “could not get elected dog catcher in Tennessee,” calling the senator a “lightweight” who is actively working against the administration’s agenda.
Corker announced his retirement in late September, after he finishes serving out his second term as senator of Tennessee.
Corker said in late September that there was “no way in hell” he was voting for a bill that produces a deficit, which the Senate’s recently passed budget allows.
The proposed budget would also allow Senate Republicans’ tax reform bill to add to the federal deficit over the next decade as long as it does not exceed $1.5 trillion.
John McCain
McCain wants tax reform, much like he argued for with health care, to go through regular order. The senior Arizona senator does not want to see major legislation go through reconciliation, a mechanism he thinks is not bipartisan and not conducive to producing the most effective legislation.
“We need to do it (tax reform) in a bipartisan fashion,” McCain told reporters in late September. “I am committed, as I’ve said before, to a bipartisan approach, such as we’ve been doing in the Armed Services Committee for the last 53 years.”
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