But there was a big, if quiet, development on another key Trump initiative on Tuesday. In a meeting at the White House with House Ways and Means Committee Democrats — ostensibly to get their input on taxes — the president said he’s no longer looking to find private-sector partners for a trillion-dollar infrastructure program.

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The financing model doesn’t work, Trump said. From my story with Damian Paletta last night:

Trump’s comments, described by a House Democrat who met with Trump and confirmed by a White House official, reveal an infrastructure plan that appears to be up in the air, as White House officials have struggled to decide how to finance many of the projects they envision to rebuild America’s roads, bridges and tunnels. Now, the administration wants to force states and localities to foot most of the bill. The previous strategy — a push that has taken a back seat to other Republican priorities in Washington — was aimed at luring private investors with promises of federal backing. Some of that thinking appears to be changing. The president acknowledged the new approach during a Tuesday meeting with Democrats from the House Ways and Means Committee , who came to the White House to discuss the administration’s tax code rewrite set to be unveiled on Wednesday, During the meeting, Trump “emphatically rejected what everybody assumed was his position relative to financing infrastructure,” said Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.), who attended and asked Trump about the proposal. “He dismissed it categorically and said it doesn’t work.”

Trump, a wealthy real-estate developer, ran and won in part on a pledge to put his decades of construction experience to use fixing the country’s crumbling public works. And after his shock victory, some leading congressional Democrats, including incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), signaled they would be willing to work with him on such a project. Schumer, after all, had already made some progress behind closed doors with Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) on a plan to dedicate the tax revenue from repatriated corporate profits toward infrastructure spending. And in the House, Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) has drawn bipartisan interest for a similar proposal.

Of course, Trump launched his presidency instead with the attempted Muslim ban and set off on a very different course. Infrastructure has slipped so far down the priority list, it’s now little more than an afterthought, as The New York Times’s Glenn Thrush wrote over the summer.

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Democrats at the White House meeting Tuesday returned to the Hill scratching their heads about what the huddle was all about — a genuine overture from a president frustrated by the inability of his own party to deliver him wins in Congress? Or a kabuki show of bipartisanship before the GOP attempts another go-it-alone mission on taxes? Higgins said he wasn’t ready to draw any firm conclusions but came away with the impression the president is “clearly disillusioned with congressional Republican leadership on healthcare;” anxious to get his hands on something big to sign; and intrigued by the progress he made cutting the debt-and-disaster deal with Democratic leadership earlier this month.

Mostly, Higgins said, the president is “obsessed with the rate of economic growth - almost as much as he is with the media. He is obsessed with the fact that President Obama never exceeded 2.8 percent and he needs to get to 3 percent,” mentioning that threshold three times in the meeting. That could suggest a new willingness to deal, the New York Democrat said. “I just wish his process matched his aspirations.”

MARKET MOVERS

TAX FLY-AROUND:

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— What's in the tax proposal being released, per Damian, Mike DeBonis and Carolyn Y. Johnson:

The plan will cut $5 trillion over 10 years, while paying for half that amount;

Slash the corporate rate from 35 percent to 20 percent and call for lowering the rate many high-

income businesses pay through the individual income code to 25 percent;

Lower the top tax bracket for individuals and families from the current 39.6 percent to 35 percent.

Call for imposing a new, higher rate to ensure that the wealthy do not end up receiving a disproportionate tax cut;

Collapse the seven individual income brackets into three: one at 12 percent of income, one at 25 percent and one at 35 percent;

Double the standard deduction, which allows people to lower their taxable income without specifying details such as charitable contributions or the interest paid on their mortgages;

Expand the child tax credit by increasing the income level at which this benefit phases out for workers;

Eliminate provisions of the tax code that push married couples into higher tax brackets based on their combined income, a dynamic often referred to as a “marriage penalty;”

Repeal the estate tax, which wealthy families must pay to transfer assets after someone dies;

Eliminate, possibly, the deduction for state and local taxes, to raise up to $1.5 trillion;

Limit the amount of interest that companies can deduct from their taxable income.

Force corporations to bring home return profits they’ve stashed abroad, paying a 10 percent rate on them.

What's not in it. The plan will not include:

Other pay-fors, leaving it up to the tax-writing committees to hash out how to compensate for all the new lower rates and breaks.

Specific income levels triggering specific tax rates, likewise leaving those decisions for later

Some important context: "Tax proposals from past White House teams, led by Republicans and Democrats, have included hundreds of pages of details and line items, specifying precisely which tax breaks should be eliminated and how much it would cost to add a new benefit.

The Trump administration decided to approach the issue much differently, worried that lawmakers would balk if they believed that the White House had cut a secret tax deal behind closed doors. But by deferring many of the toughest decisions to lawmakers, the White House gives more Republicans an opportunity to have a say in what the changes look like. It also opens up the process to prolonged bickering and foot-dragging, which has sidelined previous tax efforts for decades."

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— Senate Budget markup ahoy. The panel will finally take up a spending blueprint next week. The Hill's Niv Elis: "As far as the numbers go, the Senate budget is expected to be based on 2017 overall spending levels, with some funds shuffled around between agencies. Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) has been oddly quiet on the process and the deal. Meanwhile, the House budget, which passed committee in July, may be on the verge of overcoming its own roadblocks to final passage on the House floor."

--Why this matters for taxes: Republicans intend to take up a tax code rewrite as part of the budget process in order to use special rules allowing them to consider such a measure without Democratic votes. Of course, the GOP failed (twice now) using this hardball tactic when it came to repealing the Affordable Care Act. But without a big legislative win under their belts and 2018 rapidly approaching, Republicans and the president are desperate for win that will appeal to their base.

--Trump, meanwhile, is not giving up on health care, he said this morning:

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(Caveat: we're not sure who the president means is in the hospital:)

— Private equity could be spared. Reuters' Amanda Becker: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin recently hinted at a possible exemption to allow partners of financial firms that “create jobs” to continue taking advantage of the [carried interest] tax break. Any change is far off as Republican tax reform efforts are moving slowly. But if the carried-interest loophole is closed with an exemption for “job creators,” the likely winners will include private equity and venture capital firms, experts said."

— McCain wants a bipartisan process. Bloomberg's Sahil Kapur writes that the Arizona Republican "is laying down the same marker on tax legislation as he did on health care, demanding regular order and support from both parties -- a stance that has proved pivotal in thwarting Senate Republican efforts to undo Obamacare. 'We need to do it in a bipartisan fashion,' McCain said Tuesday of planned tax legislation, arguing that the major congressional reforms that have stood the test of time since the 20th century have included buy-in from both parties."

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Two key conservatives ok with top rates. The Hill: "Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), are open to keeping the top income tax rates unchanged as part of the Republican tax-reform bill."

Tax boosters worried about what Trump will say today. Politico's Nancy Cook and Ben White: "Trump has a habit of going off-script at public events, editorializing and extemporizing. That’s exacerbating fears that the president could upend months of behind-the-scenes negotiations by the so-called Big Six—a group of White House officials, Hill Republican leaders, and committee heads—over the blueprint document Trump will introduce to the greater public in Indiana."

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POCKET CHANGE

— Equifax CEO resigns. The Wall Street Journal's AnnaMaria Andriotis and Emily Glazer: "The credit-reporting company’s board looked to show Equifax and its leadership were being held accountable for the breach, according to people familiar with the matter... In acting before hearings, Equifax’s board had in mind the experience of former Wells Fargo & Co. Chief Executive John Stumpf, the people familiar with the matter said. That executive appeared almost exactly a year earlier before two congressional committees to answer for his bank’s sales-practices scandal."

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TRUMP TRACKER

RUSSIA WATCH:

— Stone denies collusion. The Post's Karoun Demirjian: "Former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone told House Intelligence Committee members Tuesday that allegations that he or anyone else in Trump’s circle sought to collude with Russian operatives to win the 2016 election were “false.” But Stone refused to answer questions about the intermediaries through whom he made contact with WikiLeaks, prompting committee Democrats to threaten future subpoenas if he is not more forthcoming with information. Stone spoke with House investigators for almost three hours behind closed doors."

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— Blumenthal: 99 percent sure of indictments. Politico's Darren Samuelsohn: "Criminal charges against two former top advisers to President Donald Trump are virtually certain, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Tuesday. Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort are almost sure to be indicted as a result of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the Connecticut senator told POLITICO.

'I'm about 99 percent sure there will be some criminal charges from this investigation,' said Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Blumenthal has also served as a U.S. attorney and spent 20 years as his state's attorney general. Blumenthal said he is less certain Trump himself would end up facing charges, including for possible obstruction of justice for his firing of FBI Director James Comey."

— IRS sharing info with investigators. CNN's Manu Raju, Pamela Brown and Evan Perez: "After several months of being at odds, one source said, the IRS Criminal Investigation division is now sharing information about campaign associates, including Manafort and former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn. The sharing happened after the two camps reached an agreement following consultation with officials at the Treasury Department."

— Senate Judiciary to subpoena Manafort docs. Via Karoun Demirjian: "The Senate Judiciary Committee has reached an agreement to subpoena documents from former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort as part of its ongoing probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, according to the top Democrat on the panel. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told reporters Tuesday the committee had decided to subpoena documents, but a spokesman for Feinstein would not detail what documents the committee is seeking. The senator added the panel “will certainly use the subpoena power,” if necessary, to get Manafort to testify as well."

— Kushner's lawyer pranked. The Post's Aaron Blake: "For the second time this month, a White House lawyer has been caught discussing a sensitive internal issue with a prankster posing as a White House staffer. Go ahead and read that sentence again. Earlier this month, it was President Trump's lawyer, Ty Cobb, discussing the Russia investigation with an emailer posing as White House social media director Dan Scavino. Now as Business Insider's Natasha Bertrand reports, it's Jared Kushner's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, chewing over Kushner's private emails with the same prankster posing as Kushner."

MONEY ON THE HILL

— A bad day for McConnell that got worse. The Post's Paul Kane writes up the one-two-three punch for the Senate Majority Leader of declaring defeat on the Obamacare repeal drive; losing a reliable partner in Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who's retiring; and potentially gaining a migraine in the form of Roy Moore, who defeated incumbent Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.) in the Alabama Republican primary. Here's PK: "While no stranger to defeat in the past — he spent eight years as minority leader — McConnell’s string of losses in such a short timespan Tuesday punctured much of his well crafted image as the consummate insider who could deliver. Each blow had its own unusual circumstances, with President Trump’s own erratic performance playing a role, but McConnell’s failures came in nearly every facet of congressional leadership."

— GOP civil war? The Post's Bob Costa writes that the worst may be yet to come for the party: "The stunning defeat of President Trump’s chosen Senate candidate in Alabama on Tuesday amounted to a political lightning strike — setting the stage for a worsening Republican civil war that could have profound effects on next year’s midterm elections and undermine Trump’s clout with his core voters. The GOP primary victory by conservative firebrand Roy Moore over Sen. Luther Strange could also produce a stampede of Republican retirements in the coming months and an energized swarm of challengers."

CHART TOPPER

DAYBOOK

Today

The Financial Services Roundtable holds an event on “How Tax Reform Can Secure the Futures of America’s Workers.”

Reps. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), Nydia M. Velázquez (D-N.Y.) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y) hold a news conference on abusive overdraft fees.

Coming Up

The National Economists Club will hold an event on “Globalization in Crisis and the Rise of Populism” on Thursday .

The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs holds a hearing on evaluating sanctions against North Korea on Thursday .

The Brookings Institution holds an event on perspectives on securities regulation on Thursday .

The American Enterprise Institute holds an event on how "decade of extreme monetary policy changed the banking system" on Oct. 10.

THE FUNNIES

BULL SESSION

Washington Post sports columnist Kevin Blackistone discusses why NFL anthem protests have everything to do with race:

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) joins a growing list of GOP lawmakers on their way out:

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) says Facebook has ‘been incredibly helpful’ to Senate probe:

Why Jared Kushner’s use of private email is different than Hillary Clinton’s: