And it seems that the more ambitious the agenda, the more a razor-thin majority may feel like a minority.

The "Big Six" -- Trump administration and congressional negotiators -- only released its nine-page tax code rewrite framework last week. But already two Republican senators -- Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Bob Corker (Tenn.) -- have voiced serious skepticism over the plan taking shape.

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Of course, we're far from even the start of the tax overhaul debate, but the two GOP skeptics offer fresh reminders of the unforgiving math confronting Republicans as they aim to stitch together a winning coalition for their last best hope of a landmark legislative victory. With 52 Republicans in the chamber, the party can only afford to lose two votes total and still pass a measure under special budget rules with Vice President Pence as the tiebreaker.

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Paul is always a thorn in GOP sides -- and was one of the "no" votes on the Obamacare repeal-and-replace effort. Here's what he had to say about the GOP tax plan yesterday:

And here were some journalists registering that comment on behalf of Republican leadership:



The report that Paul referred to — an attempt by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center to project the impact of the tax framework — has attracted a ton of attention from detail-starved tax reporters since its Friday release. But top Republicans have waved off its conclusions biased assumptions, including that their proposal would concentrate 80 percent of its benefits among the top 1 percent of earners.

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“Look, I love Rand Paul. He and I play baseball together as well, and he’s a friend,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) said Monday. “(But) this is not the group you go to ... they have none of the key details that would allow an objective, complete analysis.”

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While they fill in those details, Republicans will mind another warning sign from a potentially key senator. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) brokered the Senate Budget Committee deal to authorize Republicans to move a $1.5 trillion tax cut with only Republican support. But Corker said in a Sunday appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he’ll oppose a final package if “we are adding one penny to the deficit.”

It’s not clear how Corker will make that determination. He said Monday he’ll consider opinions beyond those of the official congressional number-crunchers:



That suggests Corker wants to extend more credit to the growth effects of a big tax cut than will the scorekeepers on the Hill. But he also wants politically painful cuts to existing tax breaks, as The Post's Kelsey Snell reports: “I do know that it takes $4 trillion of loophole closing to execute what they want to execute,” Corker said Monday. “I’m all for the most draconian loophole closing that can possibly take place, but I haven’t seen Congress do those sort of things.”

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These aren’t quite red lines. They’re more like pink dashes. But they point toward a narrowing lane for the GOP as it seeks to steer a path for a tax overhaul through competing GOP demands.

Las Vegas shooting update: The toll is up to 59 people killed and more than 500 injured when a gunman opened fire from a perch at a high rise hotel down into a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip late Sunday.

Police do not yet have a motive for what is the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, report The Post’s Lynh Bui, Matt Zapotosky, Devlin Barrett and Mark Berman. Stephen Paddock, the 64-year-old shooter, had smuggled 23 guns inside his 32nd floor hotel room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. More firearms were found at his home.

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Authorities say Paddock had no known previous run-ins with police and, despite a claim of responsibility from the Islamic state, no connection was found with terrorist groups. In the hours after the shooting, area blood donation centers were packed with lines stretching around blocks. Several vigils were held Monday night in Las Vegas, Reno, the Nellis Air Force Base and at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus in honor of the victims of the shooting. Here’s what we know about the lives lost in Las Vegas.

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MARKET MOVERS

— Gun stocks up after Las Vegas shooting. CNNMoney's Paul La Monica: "Gun stocks rose Monday following the deadliest mass shooting in American history late Sunday night. A gunman in a hotel room at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas killed at least 58 people attending an outdoor concert and wounded over 500 more.



Shares of Sturm Ruger (RGR) were up 4%, while American Outdoor Brands (AOBC), the company formerly known as Smith & Wesson, gained more than 3%. A company named Olin (OLN), which owns the Winchester brand of ammunition, rose 6% to an all-time high. The stocks have tended to rally in the immediate aftermath of mass killings, which sadly have become more routine."

(For what it's worth, as my colleague Christopher Ingraham notes, there's a long list of common-sense gun measures that draw support from super-majorities of the electorate. That sentiment doesn't transmit to where it counts, in Congress.)

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POCKET CHANGE

— Goldman explores trading bitcoin. The Wall Street Journal: "Goldman’s effort is in its early stages and may not proceed, the people said. The firm’s interest, though, could boost bitcoin’s standing among investors and fuel the debate around digital currencies, which were initially viewed as havens for illicit activity but are pushing further into the mainstream investment world.

China in recent weeks has banned exchanges that trade bitcoin, fearing the virtual currency could provide an avenue for capital flight. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive James Dimon, whose bank is the largest dealer in global currencies, last month called bitcoin a 'fraud' and said he would fire any employee who traded it.

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Yet Japan’s government has embraced bitcoin, creating regulations to legitimize its trading. India and Sweden have mused about creating their own virtual currencies, and the U.S. Federal Reserve has studied bitcoin and the technology underpinning it."

— Wall Street won't mind if NAFTA talks fail. Bloomberg's Ben Bartenstein: "Months of high-level meetings from Mexico City to Washington to Ottawa may be for naught as the Trump administration pushes for ground on contentious issues that Canadian and Mexican negotiators are reluctant to cede. That’s not necessarily unwelcome news on Wall Street. Investor anxiety in Mexico, as measured by the peso’s three-month implied volatility, declined the most of any developing nation during the third quarter as the United States’s insistence on reducing its trade deficit risks scuttling the talks."

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MONEY ON THE HILL

— Equifax takes Wells Fargo's baton as industry villain. Bloomberg's Elizabeth Dexheimer, Jesse Hamilton, and Jennifer Surane: "Executives from both companies will travel to Capitol Hill this week to testify in overlapping hearings about efforts to aid customers stung by lapses at their firms. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are eager to use Wells Fargo’s retail bank scandals and Equifax’s massive data breach to push their political agendas on everything from computer security to financial regulation.

For Wells Fargo, the congressional flogging can’t get much worse than it was last year for then-CEO John Stumpf, who was berated and insulted and then ousted. This time around, analysts, lawmakers and their staffers expect Tim Sloan, who succeeded Stumpf, to be better prepared and that his biggest challenge will be to explain why more revelations about fake accounts and other lapses keep dribbling out.

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But time in the hot seat is just starting for Richard Smith, who stepped down as CEO last week. He will testify before four separate congressional panels, starting Tuesday with the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Federal Trade Commission and a wide range of consumer-protection issues."

— 2.5 million more exposed. The Post's Hamza Shaban: "An additional 2.5 million consumers may have been affected by the massive data breach at Equifax, the company said in a statement Monday, bringing the new total of potentially affected consumers to a staggering 145.5 million. 'I was advised Sunday that the analysis of the number of consumers potentially impacted by the cybersecurity incident has been completed, and I directed that the results be promptly released,' said interim chief executive Paulino do Rego Barros Jr.

— Maxine Waters: Consider shutting down Wells Fargo. CNN's Matt Egan: "The top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee,issued a 38-page report on Friday slamming regulators for failing to punish the bank more severely for its recent scandals. The report, prepared by the Democratic staff of the committee, described Wells Fargo as a 'repeat offender' for, among other things, opening as many as 3.5 million potentially fake accounts, forcing up to 570,000 borrowers into unneeded auto insurance and allegedly discriminating in mortgage lending."

Meanwhile, the bank's main regulator is considering new sanctions against it, Reuters's Patrick Rucker and Dan Freed report: "The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has for weeks debated how to take action on the insurance and mortgage issues which came to light this summer, said the source. And officials are considering whether to fault the bank for older consumer lending issues, said two sources familiar with the moves. Wells Fargo earlier reached a $190 million settlement with regulators a year ago after it said its branch staff had opened as many as 2.1 million accounts without customers’ authorization to meet internal sales target."

— New hurricane relief bill will top $10 billion. The Post's Ed O'Keefe: "The White House is expected ask for another short-term infusion of cash to pay for the response to the damage caused by Hurricane Maria across Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to top congressional aides. In the case of Puerto Rico, officials there and some lawmakers on the mainland are clamoring for legislation that would provide tens of billions of dollars in relief and address Puerto Rico’s long-simmering fiscal crisis, shore up its bankrupt electric company and plug a shortfall in Medicaid funding. Work on a more comprehensive relief package will continue into the fall, the aides said...

Congress approved $15.25 billion in federal relief last month to pay for recovery operations after hurricanes hit Texas and Florida. As of Monday, the Disaster Relief Fund, operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, still had about $9.4 billion, the agency said. But the response to storms in Texas and Florida has now been compounded by the devastation across Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and officials expect the fund to be depleted in the coming weeks."

The storms could end up the insurance industry more than $100 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports.

TRUMP TRACKER

RUSSIA WATCH:

— Trump's company had more contact with Russia. The Post's Tom Hamburger, Rosalind S. Helderman and Adam Entous scoop: "Associates of President Trump and his company have turned over documents to federal investigators that reveal two previously unreported contacts from Russia during the 2016 campaign, according to people familiar with the matter. In one case, Trump’s personal attorney and a business associate exchanged emails weeks before the Republican National Convention about the lawyer possibly traveling to an economic conference in Russia that would be attended by top Russian financial and government leaders, including President Vladi­mir Putin, according to people familiar with the correspondence.

In the other case, the same Trump attorney, Michael Cohen, received a proposal in late 2015 for a Moscow residential project from a company founded by a billionaire who once served in the upper house of the Russian parliament, these people said. The previously unreported inquiry marks the second proposal for a Trump-branded Moscow project that was delivered to the company during the presidential campaign and has since come to light...

Though there is no evidence that these Russia-related entreaties resulted in further action, the email communications about them show that Trump’s inner circle continued receiving requests from Russians deep into the presidential campaign."

— Russians used Facebook tool to identify voters. The Post's Elizabeth Dwoskin, Craig Timberg and Adam Entous: "Russian operatives set up an array of misleading websites and social media pages to identify American voters susceptible to propaganda, then used a powerful Facebook tool to repeatedly send them messages designed to influence their political behavior, say people familiar with the investigation into foreign meddling in the U.S. election. The tactic resembles what American businesses and political campaigns have been doing in recent years to deliver messages to potentially interested people online. The Russians exploited this system by creating English-language sites and Facebook pages that closely mimicked those created by U.S. political activists."

And those ads were seen by 10 million people, Politico's Nancy Scola reports.

— Federal watchdog investigates Zinke. The Post's Lisa Rein: The inspector general for the Interior Department has opened an investigation into Secretary Ryan Zinke’s travel during seven months in office, from his use of taxpayer-funded charter and military planes to his mixing of official trips with political appearances. Nancy K. DiPaolo, a spokesperson for Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall, described a broad investigation into Zinke’s 'travel in general,' including 'modes of travel, costs and schedules.'

'It’s not just one trip,' she said. 'It’s seven months of travel.' She said the probe was prompted by numerous complaints from employees and the public and recent newspaper articles.

— Jared and Ivanka had another private email account. Politico's Josh Dawsey and Andrew Peterson report: "White House officials have begun examining emails associated with a third and previously unreported email account on Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s private domain, according to three people familiar with the matter. Hundreds of emails have been sent since January from White House addresses to accounts on the Kushner family domain, these people said. Many of those emails went not to Kushner’s or Ivanka Trump’s personal addresses but to an account they both had access to and shared with their personal household staff for family scheduling.

The emails — which include nonpublic travel documents, internal schedules and some official White House materials —were in many cases sent from Ivanka Trump, her assistant Bridges Lamar and others who work with the couple in the White House. The emails to the third account were largely sent from White House accounts but occasionally came from other private accounts, one of these people said."

THE REGULATORS

CHART TOPPER

DAYBOOK

Today

The Senate Joint Economic Committee holds a hearing on tax reform and entrepreneurship.

The House Financial Services Committee holds a hearing on an update from the director of the federal housing finance agency.

Coming Up

The Washington Post’s James Hohmann will have a one-on-one discussion with White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney on Wednesday .

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law holds a hearing “continuing to monitor data-broker cybersecurity” on Wednesday .

Former Equifax CEO Richard F. Smith will testify before the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday .

The Brookings Institution will hold an event on Wednesday .

The House Small Business Committee holds a hearing on “Modernizing the Code for the Nation’s Job Creators” on Wednesday .

The House Financial Services Committee holds a hearing on examining the SEC’s agenda, operations and budget on Wednesday .

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget will hold an event on paying for tax reform on Wednesday .

The House Ways and Means Committee holds a hearing on the IRS’s information technology modernization efforts on Wednesday .

Smith will testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday .

The Senate Finance Committee holds a hearing on the nominations of Jeffrey Gerrish, of Maryland, to be a Deputy United States Trade Representative for Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Industrial Competitiveness, Gregory Doud to be Chief Agricultural Negotiator, Office of the United States Trade Representative and Jason Kearns to be a Member of the United States International Trade Commission on Thursday .

The Peterson Institute hosts its semiannual Global Economic Prospects session on Thursday .

The Washington International Trade Association holds an event on dispute settlement on Thursday .

The Heritage Foundation will hold an event on the direction of FINRA on Friday.

THE FUNNIES

BULL SESSION

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.): Congress’s inaction is ‘unintentional endorsement’ of mass shootings:

Las Vegas residents mourn shooting victims at vigil:

An emotional Jimmy Kimmel asks for gun control. He wasn't the only late-night host to do so.

Watch Stephen Colbert address the shooting in Las Vegas: