If it’s really consequential and it's going to effect one-sixth of the economy (i.e. health care) or 100 percent of taxpayers (i.e. tax reform), you can bet Republicans are going to do it behind closed doors. Sure enough, the AP writes:
The White House plans to privately negotiate a massive overhaul of the tax system with Republican leaders in Congress, possibly giving rank-and-file members little if any say over the finished product, according to a top aide to President Donald Trump.
Gary Cohn, Trump’s top economic aide, said Tuesday the administration doesn’t want to engage in prolonged negotiations after the package is made public this fall. Cohn said the goal is to release the overhaul in the first two weeks of September.
“We don’t want to be negotiating the tax bill on the floor,” Cohn said at a meeting of technology executives.
Right—we sure wouldn't want American taxpayers to know anything about what's coming at them before they're saddled with it. Just like health care. Same, same.
Paul Ryan told a National Association of Manufacturers gathering Tuesday that a tax overhaul could be accomplished by year's end despite the fact that many Republicans already prefer to settle for a simple temporary tax cut. But not pie-in-the-sky Ryan:
“We will not wait for a path free of obstacles because it does not exist. And we will not cast about for quick fixes and half-measures,” Ryan said. “Transformational tax reform can be done, and we are moving forward. Full speed ahead.”
Yep—full speed ahead ...
It has been about a year since Ryan and other House Republicans released a blueprint for how they would overhaul the tax code. Yet Ryan didn’t provide any additional information about his tax plan or the state of negotiations among White House officials and Republican leaders in Congress.
Clearly Ryan's takeaway from releasing a plan last year that was DOA due to the "border adjustment" tax on imported goods is to just not release anything at all to the public. That's standard Republican operating procedure now—in the House, the Senate, and the White House.
If only the Russians would tell us what’s going on.