At present, the Republican dream of passing a tax-reform bill by the end of the year is held together by two paper clips, a stale piece of gum, and the vintage Ronald Reagan cuff links that Paul Ryan scored on eBay, which he rubs every morning to give him strength. Democrats don’t want to touch the House or Senate bills with a 200-foot pole. Republicans in blue states are all riled up about the call to end state and local deductions. Virtually everyone has concluded that both chambers’ plans will blow a huge hole in the deficit, precluding the House from making the claim that its tax cuts will “pay for themselves” and the Senate from passing a bill through reconciliation. The rush to push legislation through on a ridiculously tight, self-imposed timeline is “alarming tax specialists who warn that new and unforeseen complexity, loopholes, and glitches could come back to haunt tax collectors and taxpayers.” So naturally, president Donald Trump has chosen to weigh in with a few unpopular, last-minute suggestions.

On Monday, the president took time out of confounding Asian diplomats to tweet, “I am proud of the Rep. House & Senate for working so hard on cutting taxes {and reform.} We’re getting close! Now, how about ending the unfair & highly unpopular Indiv Mandate in OCare & reducing taxes even further? Cut top rate to 35% w/all of the rest going to middle income cuts?” That’s a hell of a wrench to throw into the G.O.P. plan, given how troubled it already is. To clarify, Trump is suggesting using tax reform to simultaneously repeal the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, which would employ the savings derived from 15 million Americans going uninsured to cut income taxes on the ultra-rich. That’s remarkable not only because Republicans already tried and failed to mess with Obamacare. But it’s the call for a further rate cut that’s truly incredible: In asking for the top tax rate to come down to 35 percent—it’s currently at 39.6 percent, with the House plan keeping it there and the Senate plan bringing it down to 38.5—the president indicated that lawmakers’ current proposals don’t cut taxes enough for the wealthiest people in the country.

Congress, luckily, is already well-trained to ignore the president. Still, Trump’s eleventh-hour tweet doesn’t make things easier for Republican leaders, who have been doggedly insisting that their legislation is, first and foremost, about the middle class. The math doesn’t really support that contention, which is why Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, having already flunked the math portion of tax reform, are now scrambling to find any voodoo economist willing to explain away the massive deficit hole in their plan. In which case, what’s another 3.5-point cut among friends?

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Janet Yellen shades Trump on the way out

Earlier this month Trump nominated Jerome Powell to lead the Federal Reserve when Janet Yellen’s term expires in February, breaking a tradition in which every Fed chair in modern history has been nominated for a second term because he is intent on “making [his] mark.” And while Yellen isn’t the type to start flame-wars, Business Insider notes that in a speech last week praising the late Senator Paul H. Douglas, she seemed to continue her tradition of subtly critiquing the boss without actually mentioning his name. Some her more pointed lines include: