The massive tax and spending invoice presently earlier than the Senate is prone to go into legislation. It might show controversial sufficient to be a drag on Republican candidates.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The Senate is in session.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED CLERK: Part 32912 of Title 49 United States Code is amended. One in subset…
RASCOE: That is a clerk studying aloud the textual content of President Trump’s huge tax and spending invoice. Republicans are racing to get a model of it by way of the Senate and again to the Home. Trump has mentioned he needs to signal it into legislation by July 4. NPR senior nationwide political correspondent Mara Liasson is watching the laws and joins us now. Good morning, Mara.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Good morning.
RASCOE: So is that Independence Day deadline slipping?
LIASSON: Effectively, it might slip a bit. Trump has mentioned he needs the invoice on his desk by July 4 however that the deadline might slip. Final night time, the invoice superior within the Senate. It handed a procedural hurdle 51 to 49. Two Republicans within the Senate voted towards it, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky, and all of the Democrats voted no. However beneath the fast-track guidelines referred to as reconciliation with no filibusters allowed, this invoice is now on observe for last passage within the Senate tomorrow. In response to the Congressional Funds Workplace and different impartial analysts, the invoice’s advantages are nonetheless skewed to the rich with massive tax cuts, and so they’re paid for with cuts to Medicaid, which can have an effect on a variety of lower-income individuals, together with many Trump voters in pink states.
RASCOE: So what are the probabilities that the compromises to get this invoice to the end line might lead to too many compromises that causes the invoice to fail?
LIASSON: That is a very good query, nevertheless it’s onerous to think about that the present Republican majority in Congress will vote towards the president. Virtually all the things – his total legislative agenda – is packed into this one invoice, and there is no president in fashionable instances who’s had a firmer grip on his get together than Donald Trump. And he issued a press release over the weekend that makes this very private. He mentioned, quote, “failure to go this invoice could be the final word betrayal.” So in different phrases, Republicans vote towards this at their political danger. And the large query is, if this invoice does go, does it change into a political legal responsibility or a profit for Republicans within the midterm elections?
The primary tax invoice Trump handed in his first time period turned out to be very unpopular. Voters do not like the concept of giving massive tax cuts to billionaires and slicing Medicaid, and that would be the Democrats’ message. The Republicans will deal with the tax cuts going ahead, and that is going to be a essential challenge within the midterm elections.
RASCOE: This time final week, a lot of this program was in regards to the U.S. strikes on Iran. How far more do we all know as we speak about what precisely these assaults achieved?
LIASSON: Effectively, now we have a variety of conflicting analyses. Trump says that the strikes utterly obliterated Iran’s nuclear program – set it again for years. He has assist in that view from his personal CIA and from an Israeli estimate. However a preliminary Protection Intelligence Company report steered that this system could solely have been set again for months, and the pinnacle of the Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company mentioned Iran might resume enrichment of uranium in a matter of months. So it is nonetheless unclear. The strikes definitely did a variety of harm – even the Iranians admit that. The query is, what’s the lesson that the Iranians are going to take from this? Will they offer up on getting a nuclear weapon – which is what Trump says they are going to do – or will their lesson be completely different, that they must rush to get a nuclear weapon as quickly as doable to keep away from future strikes like this? In any case, nobody is bombing North Korea as a result of they’ve a variety of nuclear weapons.
RASCOE: Effectively NATO had a summit in The Hague this previous week, which the president attended. What stood out to you from that assembly within the Netherlands?
LIASSON: Effectively, it appeared prefer it was an entire turnaround in Trump’s angle in the direction of NATO. He is had an ambivalent, if not hostile, relationship with NATO up till now. He is thought-about them freeloaders. He steered many instances that the U.S. may not honor Article 5, which says an assault on one is an assault on all. In different phrases, he may not come to the protection of NATO nations who’re attacked. However in Europe, the NATO allies discovered a method to maintain Trump within the fold, no less than for now.
The very first thing they did was substantive. They agreed to boost their protection spending to five% of GDP, which is one thing that Trump had been demanding, so he will get credit score for that. They usually flattered him. They praised him. They mentioned this by no means might have occurred with out him, and the Secretary Basic of NATO even known as him Daddy. So he left the NATO assembly saying that he got here in as if it was a chore, however he left feeling in a different way. He mentioned NATO is just not a rip-off, which is the other of what he is been calling them, and we are going to see if his new heat emotions towards the Western Alliance proceed.
RASCOE: That is in NPR’s Mara Liasson. Mara, thanks a lot.
LIASSON: You are welcome.
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