But in each of the three Republican power centers in Washington — the White House and both chambers of Congress — leaders are preoccupied by matters other than the dicey work of forging a consensus approach to reworking the tax system from top to bottom.

In the Senate, before Republicans can focus on the matter, they first to need to work through an Obamacare replacement package that no one seems to want to support. Debate over that measure has spilled over the time that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) set aside for it, piling pressure on an already-crowded agenda for the rest of summer and fall. McConnell on Tuesday acknowledged that reality by cutting the chamber's planned August recess in half to keep senators working in Washington. He also set a procedural vote on the health-care bill for next week.

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The holdup in the Senate is more than a scheduling concern. Republicans have been counting on their Obamacare repeal to help pay for their tax plan. Their first proposal would have wiped out all of the roughly $1 trillion in tax hikes that the original law imposed on the health industry and the rich to fund its coverage expansions. With those cuts out of the way, the GOP could slash rates even further in their overhaul of the code. But a public backlash to a measure Democrats have attacked as wealth transfer from the poor to the rich has forced Republicans to adjust course. Now, they appear poised to preserve a pair of Obamacare tax increases that fell on couples earning more than $250,000 a year — saving $231 billion while potentially adding that sum to the price tag for the tax rewrite.

The House is hung up on a budget. Republicans divided among defense hawks, deficit hard-liners and moderates are struggling to reach consensus on a package setting spending levels for fiscal year 2018. That resolution will also unlock the procedural rule known as reconciliation that allows Republicans to pass a tax bill with simple majorities in both chambers — the route that leaders have counted on taking as they’ve plotted their approach this year.

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House Budget Committee Chair Diane Black (R-Tenn.) is attempting to thread the needle among competing demands from the wings of the Republican conference. But she still hasn’t scheduled a markup that she’s said she intends to hold next week.

“Obviously, we’ve gotten postponed, so there are still negotiations going on,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a senior member of the budget panel, told me Tuesday. “Sooner would be better, but it looks to me like we may all be here a little longer.”

Federal budget expert Stan Collender called the standoff over spending levels “intractable” and said it looks increasingly likely that Republicans will pass another so-called skinny budget, as they did in January, that holds current spending levels constant in order to get the tax rules in place. That will rankle conservatives demanding cuts to mandatory spending who may be forced to swallow another vote for the status quo in the interest of advancing the tax debate. “It comes down to tax reform versus no tax reform,” Collender tells me.

Looming ever larger over the internal disputes knotting up progress in either chamber is the shadow the Russia scandal is casting down Pennsylvania Avenue. That’s not to say that congressional Republicans are suddenly sweating the progress of the Russia investigation. As my colleague Dave Weigel documents, they aren’t.

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But congressional aides and business lobbyists close to the process have griped for weeks that the White House needs to assert some leadership to resolve fundamental impasses stymying Republican negotiators on the Hill. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) told reporters Tuesday after a White House meeting on the subject that principals are “still on target and making steady progress toward delivering this to the president’s desk in 2017.” And House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who also attended that meeting, tweeted this hopeful report:

But as my colleague Damian Paletta points out, Republicans still haven't come to agreement on the most basic aspects of their approach to the issue:

Meanwhile, Phil Rucker and Ashley Parker report, the White House has been "thrust into chaos after days of ever-worsening revelations about a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a lawyer characterized as representing the Russian government, as the president fumes against his enemies and senior aides circle each other with suspicion, according to top White House officials and outside advisers." People who have spoken with the president this week describe him as "enraged that the Russia cloud still hangs over his presidency" and "exasperated that his eldest son and namesake has become engulfed by it."

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For his part, President Trump tweeted this morning to defend his son and lambast what he called the "greatest Witch Hunt in political history":

For a different type of president, a meaty policy debate on an issue core to the agenda might provide a refuge from the storm clouds of scandal. Trump hasn't demonstrated much of a Clintonian ability to compartmentalize — or, for that matter, an interest in the nuts and bolts of his own program. The president's hands-off approach, and a divided congressional GOP, has left a major tax overhaul that once looked like a sure bet sputtering.

MARKET MOVERS

— The two-day Janet L. Yellen-fest on Capitol Hill kicks off at 10 a.m. this morning when the Federal Reserve chair takes a seat before the House Financial Services Committee. The Wall Street Journal notes that lawmakers will likely press Yellen on the central bank’s schedule for raising rates, details of plans for shrinking the Fed’s $4.5 trillion balance sheet, the economic agenda in Congress, and her own future at the bank, since her chairmanship ends in early February.

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— Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs president now serving as Trump’s chief economic brain, is first in line to replace Yellen, according to Politico. It’s not clear he wants the job. And his nomination could ruffle feathers both inside the White House, among the economic nationalists who view him as an ideological enemy, and among in among some Republicans in Congress suspicious of his history as a Democrat. But he’s worked to build good relationships with many key players on the Hill. He’d be the first non-economist in the position since the Carter administration. Politico reports that Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor now at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, is also high on the shortlist.

— The stock market shuddered but quickly recovered Tuesday after Donald Trump Jr. released the emails showing he embraced Russian help for his father's campaign last summer. Bloomberg reports: "For anyone paying attention it was the first tangible sign in weeks that the market remains subject to rough reversals when the topic of Donald Trump’s political prospects is perceived to reach a critical mass." The whole sell-off-and-recovery episode took about 30 minutes. Citigroup's chief political analyst wrote to clients that it highlighted anew the risks posed by the Trump administration's instability: “We believe the risk of impeachment proceedings is now higher than before, even if still not our base case.”

MONEY ON THE HILL

— Senate Republicans are wasting no time striking back at the rule unveiled Monday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would ban big financial firms from forcing their customers into binding arbitration agreements. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) plans to force the issue to a vote.

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Under the Congressional Review Act, lawmakers can scrub a rule from the books with simple majorities in each chamber if they vote within 60 legislative days of its publication in the federal register. The CFPB rule opens up the big banks up to class-action lawsuits from customers. So the pending Senate battle over the rule will pit Wall Street interests against trial lawyers and consumer groups.

— McConnell wants to lift the debt ceiling before the August recess, The Hill reports. He made the comment to reporters Tuesday after announcing that he is canceling the first two weeks of the August recess to give senators more time to make progress on the legislative agenda. He sidestepped a question about whether the extension of federal borrowing authority should be tied to spending cuts. “"We'll see, but the debt ceiling must be raised," he said.

— House Republicans could be pinching the constituents of some of their most vulnerable members if they embrace a key piece of the Trump administration's tax plan, a new Bloomberg analysis shows. The Trump approach calls for eliminating the individual federal tax deduction for state and local taxes paid — a valuable deduction for residents of high-tax jurisdictions like California, Illinois and New Jersey. But 51 of the 136 Congressional districts hit hardest by the proposal are represented by Republicans, and 13 of those GOP-held districts went for Hillary Clinton last year, making them prime Democratic pickup targets in next year's midterms.

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THE REGULATORS

— The New York Times teamed up with ProPublica to track the business ties and personal financial interests of the people the Trump administration has brought aboard to roll back regulations. It’s worth a look. The organizations are asking for public help completing the project, since several federal agencies aren’t releasing the names of the people serving on the deregulation task forces.

TRUMP TRACKER

— The Trump administration is moving to block Obama-era rules designed to crack down on estate and gift tax dodgers, arguing they're overly burdensome, Max Ehrenfreund reports. The rules limited the ability of wealthy families to minimize the value of holdings subject to the tax. Per Max: "The tax is primarily paid by the very richest families. Just 0.18 percent of people who died last year paid estate taxes, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. The center also estimates that 88 percent of the total estate taxes that are paid comes from people in the richest 10 percent of the income distribution."

Some other interesting reads:

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DAYBOOK

Today

Federal Reserve Chair Janet L. Yellen will will testify before the House Financial Services Committee.

SEC chairman Jay Clayton will speak at the Economic Club of New York’s will speak at the Economic Club of New York’s luncheon

The Center for Strategic and International Studies will hold an event on US global food security strategy.

The Heritage Foundation is holding a event on the US debt.

Coming Up

Yellen will also Thursday . will also testify before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on

Thursday . The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Tax Policy will hold a hearing on how tax reform will help small business growth on

Thursday . The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Securities and Investment will hold a hearing on the “Impact of the DOL Fiduciary Rule on Capital Markets” on

The Peterson Institute for International Economics will hold an event with the Centre for International Governance Innovation and the Center for Strategic and International Studies on “A Positive NAFTA Renegotiation on July 17.

THE FUNNIES

BULL SESSION

What we know about Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer:

President Trump calls his son a "high-quality person" after email release:

Why Donald Trump Jr.'s email release could be so damaging:

Donald Trump Jr. defends his meeting with a Russian lawyer:

Senate Republicans push back August recess:

Late-night laughs: Donald Trump Jr. tweets his emails: