This afternoon, the Senate began its marathon voting session, which is expected to to last until late Thursday night or early Friday morning, after which the G.O.P. is expected to pass its 2018 budget. That, in turn, would allow the Senate to use the reconciliation process to pass tax reform. And Senator Bob Corker, for one, is not happy about it. “This whole budget, it’s a ruse,” he ranted to reporters, nearly missing a budget amendment vote to do so. “This is the biggest hoax passed upon the American people ever, that this budget process even exists. The only thing about this that matters is preparation for tax reform, moving beyond the parliamentary issues that we have to deal with on the Senate side. But other than that, these amendment votes, they’re all—everything about this is a hoax. It’s a hoax. It has no impact on anything whatsoever affecting the American people . . . If I were chairman of the Budget Committee, I would disband it. Unless we create a real budget process, which this is not, our country’s fiscal situation is going to continue to go down the tube. And we have no mechanism to control real spending, 70 percent of which is mandatory, which is not even covered by this, y’all understand that, so this is a hoax. And we’ll go ahead and we’ll spend a bunch of time tonight—the only thing that’s going to come out of this that matters is we’re going to prepare for tax reform.”

This is not the first time Corker has griped about the budget process, of which he and other conservatives have long been critical because it doesn’t give them the opportunity to engage in their favorite pastime: going after “entitlement” programs like Medicaid, Medicare, unemployment benefits, food stamps, and Social Security. But with tax cuts so close he can taste it, Corker is willing to put up with some mild discomfort for the ultimate payoff. “Yes,” he said at the conclusion of his diatribe. “I’ll vote yes on this meaningless legislation that does one thing.” (The only G.O.P. senator who is not expected to vote yes on the resolution is Rand Paul, who refuses to set aside his grumbles about increasing the deficit to take one for the team.)

If you would like to receive the Levin Report in your inbox daily, click here to subscribe.

Wealthy investors see a business opportunity in Wall Street’s opioid crisis

“Everything that’s happened in my life has made me ready for this moment—to help affluent guys in early recovery who are going through the same thing that I went through,” Trey Laird, a former trader and recovering addict who now owns a pair of “luxury sober-living home[s]” in Darien and New Canaan, Connecticut, told Bloomberg. His company, the Lighthouse, which doesn’t take insurance, charges $12,500 a month for a room with a roommate or $15,500 for a private room.

According to Laird, the idea is that after spending at least a month in a licensed rehab facility, well-to-do addicts and alcoholics can benefit from being around “like-minded people.” Both of the Lighthouse’s homes feature saunas, gyms, golf simulators, music rooms, and Need for Speed GT arcade games. Reporters Max Abelson and Jeanna Smialek note that brochures highlight “seaside vistas, chef-prepared meals, trainers, professional housekeeping, and all the comforts of home,” and during a recent visit to the Darien mansion, “stuffed clams are sitting in the fridge” and “smells of leather and smoke linger in the air.”