* Republicans have the votes to pass their tax bill:
Congressional Republicans secured enough support Friday afternoon to pass their massive tax plan into law after two critical holdouts, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), signaled they would vote for it.
Rubio emerged as a final challenge in a complicated political puzzle that the White House and GOP leaders have been assembling for the past two months. His decision to vote for the package came after a standoff with Republican leaders that led to a last-minute expansion of the Child Tax Credit.
Corker’s support was unexpected, as he had voted against the measure two weeks ago and none of his demands about deficit reduction had been met. But he said in a statement that he believed the bill was a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” that, combined with changes to immigration and trade policy, would help the economy.
If you assume that every time a Republican makes a “principled” stand against a bill like this it’s just a sham and they’ll cave in the end, you’ll almost never be wrong.
* Josh Dawsey reports that Jared Kushner is getting ready to go to the mattresses:
Senior White House official Jared Kushner and his legal team are searching for a crisis public relations firm, according to four people familiar with the matter.
Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has quietly called at least two firms, these people said. The inquiries have occurred in the past two weeks, and officials at the firms were asked not to discuss the conversations with others.
In a statement, Lowell confirmed he was looking for a firm that would handle media for all high-profile clients that receive attention from the press. His other clients include Sen. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat whose months-long corruption trial ended last month when jurors deadlocked. The Justice Department has not announced whether it plans to retry him.
“My law firm and I are considering hiring an outside consultant to handle the time-consuming incoming inquiries on the cases in which I am working that receive media attention,” Lowell said in a statement to The Washington Post. “This inquiry from you about whether I am doing this is a good example of why we need one.”
Seems to me that what happens in the press isn’t Kushner’s biggest problem. He should be more worried about whether, like his dad before him, he’ll be seeing the inside of a jail cell before this is over.
* Jenny Strasburg reports that Deutsche Bank has been asked by the government to turn over information about transactions that could relate to Michael Flynn.
* In an important twitter thread, Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, explains why he fears Republicans on his committee may shut down their Russia investigation very soon.
* Melissa Harris-Perry has a proposal for a first step in addressing the underlying institutional problem the #MeToo movement is revealing.
* Jane Coaston has a well argued piece making the case that Trumpism keeps failing at the ballot box because there’s actually no such thing as Trumpism. (This blog has been shouting itself hoarse in making a similar argument.)
* Joshua Green explains why the Republican Party’s problem goes well beyond flawed candidates.
* Glenn Kessler gives out a whole bunch of awards for the biggest Pinocchios of 2017. Weirdly, none of them involve Donald Trump! Just kidding — here’s what the awards committee really said about Trump:
There has never been a serial exaggerator in recent American politics like the president. He not only consistently makes false claims but also repeats them, even though they have been proved wrong. He always insists he is right, no matter how little evidence he has for his claim or how easily his statement is debunked. Indeed, he doubles down when challenged.
At the same time, the president flip-flops repeatedly, with little consistency in his previously held and supposedly firm positions. … When we last updated our database of false or misleading claims made by the president, the number stood at 1,628 after 298 days. That’s an average of 5.5 per day.
That is a really impressive feat, when you think about it.
* Eric Levitz explains how the Republican-controlled National Labor Relations Board just gave fast-food workers the shaft.
* John Harwood has an interview with GOP Rep. Tom Cole that deftly reveals the less-than-rigorous Republican approach to tax cuts and economic policy.
* At The Week, I explained how everything is working out great for Paul Ryan.
* And Mark Hand reports that the Trump administration is going to express its undying love for coal miners by making sure more of them get black lung disease.