Congressional Republicans came back to Washington ready and eager to work on tax reform, but they’re still missing one thing: a plan.

That’s triggered frustration among rank-and-file lawmakers who feel pressure from President Donald Trump to pass a tax reform bill but have seen no plans and worry they’ll be backed into a corner on legislation they haven’t even seen, much like they were with the failed Obamacare repeal earlier this summer.


“This time around there is no room for error. This has got to be a home run,” Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.) said, recalling the GOP's Obamacare fiasco. “I would hope everyone wants to know what’s in it before you vote on it. That’s the old [Nancy] Pelosi joke on health care, it turned into a colossal joke. ‘You’ll find out what’s in it after we pass it.’”

A member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, speaking on condition of anonymity to speak freely said, “It is frustrating and concerning that we don’t have the details and yet we’re going to be asked in 60 days to vote on something,”

The member suggested that congressional and administration leaders negotiating a plan are holding back information either to avoid leaks or because they haven’t found enough common ground yet to share anything.

There are still disagreements among negotiators in closed-door meetings over crucial issues, including:

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The corporate tax rate, with President Donald Trump pushing for a 15 percent rate that others see as unrealistic because of its cost.

The lack of a clear path forward on the 2018 budget, which will be used as a vehicle for tax reform.

Allowing businesses to immediately write off the costs of equipment and other big investments.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and top Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn are set to meet with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Budget Committee members Tuesday to strategize on the budget. Mnuchin, Cohn and McConnell belong to the "Big Six" group of tax reform negotiators, along with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch.

Republican leaders have set a goal of releasing more details this month, but not before GOP members of Ways and Means get a look and give them the OK. But with each day that passes without a plan, the rank and file seem to get more on edge.

"We want a lot more clarity on tax reform," said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the staunchly conservative House Freedom Caucus.

Trump’s proposal for a 15 percent tax rate for corporations and other businesses remains a major sticking point, sources familiar with the talks said. The rate is now 35 percent.

But Mnuchin signaled Tuesday the administration's position may be softening.

“I don’t know if we’ll be able to achieve that, given the budget issues, but we’re going to get this down to a very competitive level,” he said at an event hosted by CNBC.

The exact number is less important than getting tax reform done, he said.

Republican congressional leaders have mildly, but publicly, broken with Trump on the rate, which they’d initially hoped was a White House negotiating position rather than a concrete goal due to its cost.

“The president’s been out there talking about a 15 percent rate, the House has talked about 20, but to get it down from 35 to 20 it’s about $100 billion per point,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the third ranking Senate Republican.

Ryan, in a public interview hosted by The New York Times last week, said it was more realistic to meet or beat the average corporate rate of industrialized countries, 22.5 percent.

“Those numbers are really hard to make work," Ryan said when asked about a 15 percent rate, though he added that he'd let tax writers do the "exact math" on what works for budgetary purposes.

As one conservative tax activist put it, “There’s still a little more separation than we originally thought,” indicating that Trump’s 15 percent push set an unrealistic bar. The more he pledges it, as he did at a campaign-style rally last week in North Dakota, the harder it would be for him to shift, the activist said.

The House, Senate and White House also remain divided over the budget, which Republicans plan to use as the vehicle for tax reform to get around Democratic opposition in the Senate. The budget would include "reconciliation" instructions designed to avert a filibuster.

“A budget resolution only has to do with one thing and that’s tax reform,” Brat said. “So if you’re going to vote on tax reform, OK what’s it look like? And we don’t know yet. So it’s very hard to vote on a budget resolution, which has as its sole objective doing tax reform, when you don’t know what tax reform looks like. And so that’s our objection."

In addition, the negotiators continue to wrestle over full, immediate expensing of capital investments for businesses. They are at odds over whether the provision is necessary to juice the economy or too expensive when combined with tax cuts.

Two meetings last week of the Big Six — one on Tuesday with Trump and a follow-up on Thursday — yielded little in the way of movement, at least publicly.

Mnuchin, who is one of the negotiators, told POLITICO as he left the second meeting “we are very close” to finalizing a tax reform agreement, but offered no specifics. Mnuchin also said the administration and congressional leaders were “absolutely” close to releasing a plan, a week after claiming on television that “a very detailed plan” was being shared with members of Congress.

That was news to lawmakers.

“I would think I would be in a position to see that but I haven’t,” said Meadows, who is one of the members of Congress closest to the administration.

Ways and Means members say they know little more at this point.

“There’s nothing concrete yet,” said Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), though he added that he thought a framework would be set soon.

Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), another Ways and Means member, said, “The president has some final decisions to make and I think when that happens then we roll.”

Though congressional Republicans remain cautiously optimistic they will be able to deliver on their promise to overhaul the tax code, they know they have a limited opportunity and fear further delay will only allow interest groups to fully mobilize to fight any changes that might curb or eliminate tax provisions important to them.

Thune said basic questions have to be answered about how to measure the costs and benefits of tax cuts, as well as to what extent they are paid for by ending existing tax breaks.

“And that, obviously, is where you start getting into the controversy," Thune said. "Because every time you kill a deduction or preference or some exemption in the code there’s some constituency for that.”

