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But even if Republicans succeed in making some progress on health care, the GOP still faces an exceedingly tough slog to rewrite the tax code.

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As I reported last week, Republicans are struggling to resolve an impasse over their next budget that threatens to sink the project before it launches. The GOP House majority needs to agree on a spending blueprint because it unlocks the procedural tool that allows Republicans to approve a tax overhaul without Democratic support. The House Budget Committee approved a spending package last week with the aim of setting up House passage before lawmakers quit town for the August recess at the end of this week. But the measure still lacks the support it needs from the broader GOP conference, and Republican leaders haven’t scheduled a vote on it.

Top Republicans on and off of Capitol Hill are still weighing their options on how to proceed when it comes to taxes. One strategy would skip the budget stalemate altogether by having the Senate repurpose the House-passed heath-care package as a tax bill, thereby co-opting the fast-track procedure that lawmakers approved back in January for an Obamacare repeal. But Republican budget experts disagree about whether authority to use the procedure expires with the fiscal year at the end of September.

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Alternately, negotiators from the House, Senate, and Trump administration could simply keep pushing toward an agreement on taxes. Their hope: Progress — coupled with the political urgency of needing something to show for a year of all-GOP control — would compel other Republican lawmakers to set aside a battle over entitlement spending and pass at least a shell budget in September that provides a glide path for a tax rewrite. That version undercounts the conservative fury that a failure to repeal Obamacare — and with it, nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars in Medicaid cuts — could unleash. “If health-care gets done, the budget would be more like a stepping stone to tax reform,” one plugged-in Republican tells me. “If it doesn’t, the budget becomes a major policy fight.”

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The stock market isn't sweating the distinction. Goldman Sachs recently looked at a basket of high-tax companies that would stand to gain the most from a big rate cut. The index surged after Election Day but has since given back all of those gains, despite a market that continues notching record highs. Investors appear to have taken the measure of Washington dysfunction and priced out expectations for a major boost from the economic agenda.



TRUMP TRACKER

— The dysfunction, of course, isn't limited to the Hill. Instead of lining up Republican lawmakers behind his program and building a public case for action, the president instead is occupied with manufacturing chaos in his own operation. Trump and his advisers are mulling whether to sack Attorney General Jeff Sessions — and making no effort to shield the nation's top law-enforcement officer from the indignity of their all-but-public deliberation over his fate. Sessions was one of Trump's earliest endorsers, providing him a critical stamp of legitimacy when most of the GOP establishment shunned him. And he is still held in high regard by his former Senate Republican colleagues, whose votes Trump needs.

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The Post's Sari Horowitz, Matt Zapotosky and Robert Costa report: "Replacing Sessions is viewed by some Trump associates as potentially being part of a strategy to fire special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and end his investigation of whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin to influence the 2016 election, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. The president took another swipe at Sessions on Monday, calling his attorney general 'our beleaguered A.G.' and asking why Sessions was not 'looking into Crooked Hillary’s crimes & Russia relations?' Both points are notable. Sessions was once considered one of Trump’s closest advisers and enjoyed access few others had. Now he is left to endure regular public criticism by his boss."

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— Closer to home, Trump's newly minted communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, is looking to purge White House staffers he views as disloyal to the president. The Post's Phil Rucker and Ashley Parker report: "In consultation with confidants inside and outside the administration, Scaramucci has begun undertaking an audit of the White House’s dozens of press and communications staffers. He is meeting one-on-one with aides in an effort to understand each person’s contributions and weed out those he determines are not working hard enough to defend the president through the crises besieging the White House, according to several of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal issues."

The Daily Show noticed that Scaramucci's hand gestures bear an uncanny resemblance to those of his new boss:

— The intramural strife extends to Trump's foreign policy team, too. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has told friends that "he will be lucky to last a year in his job, according to a friend, while two officials said national security adviser H.R. McMaster was frustrated by what he sees as disorganization and indiscipline on key policy issues inside the White House," according to Reuters' John Walcott.

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— As Trump's moves sow discord internally, he's casting around for enemies externally, as The Post's John Wagner observes: "For many Republicans, the 2016 election is still alive and well — a go-to counterargument as Trump’s agenda bogs down and questions multiply around the Trump campaign’s possible improper contacts with Russian officials. The latest example came Monday night when Trump, in an address to a Boy Scouts Jamboree in West Virginia, chided Clinton for not working hard enough in key Midwestern states that unexpectedly turned red on election night.'“Do you remember that incredible night with the maps?' Trump asked the Scouts."

Returning from that rally, Trump took to Twitter to ask some questions:

— Another question, for those still hoping for some progress on the economic agenda in the fall: Does this seem like it's getting better or worse?

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MARKET MOVERS

— The Fed kicks off a two-day meeting today, with low expectations for any rate adjustment. "For this reason, some strategists say investors ought not to worry about the Fed hitting stocks at this juncture even as it is in the midst of a tightening cycle," CNBC's Rebecca Ungarino writes."The central bank's meeting, set for this Tuesday and Wednesday, will not be 'live' in the sense that 'anyone expects a change in the policy of any kind,' wrote currency strategists at Brown Brothers Harriman on Monday in a note to clients."

Anxious currency traders are paying the most in eight years for protection against a sharp decline in the dollar. Bloomberg: "With the Federal Reserve expected to hold interest rates steady Wednesday, traders in the $5.1-trillion-a-day currency market are paying an added premium for the first time since October 2009 on options to protect against an extreme decline in the dollar against the euro over a six-month tenor. One measure, known as a 10-delta risk reversal, is an indication of trader bias in the options market, which currently reflects expectations that any move in the euro would be dramatic."

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POCKET CHANGE

— Deutsche Bank is considering moving $350 billion from London to Frankfurt, part of a larger shift of activity to the European continent in response to Brexit. The move would amount to roughly a fifth of the bank's balance sheet, Bloomberg's William Canny and Steven Arons report.

— Wells Fargo just stepped in it again, accidentally releasing confidential information for tens of thousands of its wealth advisory clients, including Social Security numbers and compensation details. "The information was released in response to a subpoena relating to a former employee’s defamation lawsuit against his brother, who is a current Wells Fargo adviser" the Wall Street Journal's Lisa Beilfuss writes. "The disclosure came to light after Aaron Zeisler, an attorney at Zeisler PLLC in New York representing Gary Sinderbrand, a former employee of Wells Fargo Advisors LLC, informed a Wells Fargo lawyer." The bank is asking judges in the case to order the immediate return of the information.

— "Pharma bro" Martin Shkreli will not testify in his securities fraud trial. The prosecution could rest as soon as today, per Reuters.

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MONEY ON THE HILL

— Democrats appear to have satisfied demands from their left flank, at least temporarily, with the release of their "Better Deal" economic agenda. Dave Weigel reports: "To the happy surprise of Democratic leaders, the economics-focused agenda earned positive reviews on the left, where the party is regularly accused of compromise or sellout. There was antitrust language, and an apology for the party’s neoliberal past. There was a reiteration that the party now backed a $15 minimum wage. There was a door swinging open to expanded or even universal Medicare." The package slams telecom and cable companies.

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) did this dance when the leaders got a question about reinstating Glass-Steagall:

— Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said Monday that a showdown over funding for a Mexican border wall is unlikely to prompt a government shutdown. The Hill's Niv Ellis: "Appropriators have set aside $1.6 billion to fund new wall and fencing sections on parts of the U.S.-Mexico border covering a few dozen miles. Those funds are set to be included in a "minibus" measure combining four security-related appropriations bills that's scheduled for a vote in the House this week. The government will run out of funding at the end of September unless the House and Senate agree to a spending plan. Democrats have insisted they would not support funding a new barrier along the border, and were successful in removing its funding from a 2017 spending deal."

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OPINIONS

THE REGULATORS

— The Fed offered new guidance Monday on Volcker Rule compliance for banks looking to provide money to startup hedge funds or private equity firms. Reuters' Pete Schroeder: "Monday's tweak marks the second regulatory adjustment the Fed has made to the Volcker rule in the last week, as regulators eye a comprehensive review of the ban on proprietary trading and other risky bank behavior. Under Volcker, banks are generally barred from holding major investments in hedge funds and private equity funds, in an attempt to insulate banks with federal deposit insurance from riskier trading activity. One exemption to that ban is that banks are allowed to provide temporary 'seeding' investments to help start up such funds, with the understanding that the bank's investment would quickly shrink as outside investors join."

CHART TOPPER

DAYBOOK

Today

The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee will hold an executive session to vote on various nominations.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross . The Economic Club of Washington D.C. hosts an event with

The House Financial Services Committee will meet to mark up various bills.

The House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee holds a hearing on the IRS’s record retention policies.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute holds a regulatory reform lunch discussion

Coming Up

Wednesday on the Treasury budget request with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner John Koskinen and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government will hold a hearing on the Treasury budget request with Treasury Secretaryand IRS Commissionerand the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration

Wednesday . The Center for American Progress hosts an event on “How Trump’s Deregulatory Agenda Hurts People’s Everyday Lives” on

Jay Clayton on Wednesday . The Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness hosts a discussion with SEC chairmanon

Wednesday . The House Agriculture Committee holds a hearing on renegotiating NAFTA on

Wednesday . The Center for Strategic and International Studies will hold an event on renegotiating NAFTA on

Thursday . The Senate Appropriations Committee will hold a markup hearing on legislative branch appropriation bills on

Mnuchin on Thursday. The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on the state of the International Financial System withon

THE FUNNIES

From The Post's Tom Toles: "White House communications: New faces, familiar fancy footwork:"

BULL SESSION

Watch a man ask Jared Kushner to sign a Russian flag after Kushner testified in a closed door meeting with the Senate Intelligence Committee:

Jared Kushner says he ‘did not collude with Russia’ during the campaign:

President Trump rolls his eyes and shushes a reporter when asked about Jeff Sessions at the White House: