Along with wanting to take another shot at repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) - otherwise known as Obamacare - President Trump has said that when Congress returns from their August recess that he wants to go for Tax Reform. But with his continuous attacks against Republicans, there's a chance that the GOP in Congress will go on without the President and try to legislate by themselves, something they're considering from the viewpoint that he has no understanding of tax reform.
Trump administration dragging their feet on tax-reform details
In a report by Bloomberg titled: "GOP Leaders Don’t Expect White House Tax-Plan Details," it says that congressional leaders are already accepting the fact that they will have to handle tax-reform themselves. One can look back at reports of when the White House revealed their tax "plan" on a single sheet with bullet points. This plan was drawn up by what is referred to as the Big Six, a small group made up of White House officials and congressional leaders. But when the plan was released, it still left a lot of questions - questions that many thought would have answers by now as it was revealed back in July.
There have been some examples of rhetoric that make a lot of promises about the direction of Trump's tax plan but, in hindsight, it's nothing more than a lot of buzz.
Congress will do heavy-lifting for Trump on tax reform
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in July that they would have a full plan drawn up by the beginning of September. But in early August, another White House official said that they would then release a tax document that would provide much needed details. This also comes up against the fact that President Trump has continued to be vague with Congress about those details. The Bloomberg article referred to a source close to the discussions among congressional leaders who said that the Big Six had pretty much "built the four walls of the House" for tax reform which would suggest that it would be up to Congress.
This means that it will now be up to congressional tax-writers and the House Of Representatives to answer those questions the White House hasn't. The article also pointed to when former Press Secretary Sean Spicer said a few months back that the trump administration would be "driving the train" to tax reform, but National Economic Council Gary Cohn said that tax-reform should start in the House. This was after he had already said that the white House would have something to show right after Labor Day.
Congress working on legislation without the President already become the standard under the former Obama administration, where Republicans attempted to push through on their own, proactively obstructing everything they could.
Now, with the President's repeated attacks on members of his own party, lawmakers are forced to consider that they will simply have to continue legislating on their own, as President Trump refuses to learn how.