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Sean Craig picked up my comments in The Daily Beast on the behind-the-scenes House GOP fight over the Trump tax cuts.
However, that would leave Republicans without the necessary wiggle room to implement any of Trump’s tax policies apart from the extension of the tax cuts from his first administration.
“There will absolutely have to be trade-offs,” Republican strategist Liam Donovan told Politico. “You simply can’t fit it all into that.”
I spoke to Benjamin Guggenheim and Meredith Lee Hill for POLITICO on GOP tax cuts and budget reconciliation.
The number that lawmakers had tentatively settled on last Thursday — around $4.7 trillion — would make it virtually impossible to implement anything above an extension of the expiring tax cuts. House Republicans agreed during their White House meeting last week that they would permanently extend the 2017 tax cuts, which are estimated by Congress’ official accountants as costing $4.6 trillion.
The $4.7 trillion figure “is an implicit acknowledgement that something will have to give,” said Liam Donovan, a Republican strategist, in an interview.
“[T]here will absolutely have to be trade-offs. You simply can’t fit it all into that,” Donovan said.
I joined Ron Steslow and Marc Caputo on Politicology’s weekly roundup to talk about the January 6 and preemptive pardons and the limits of executive power.
This week, we discuss Donald Trump’s broad pardons for January 6th and Joe Biden’s preemptive pardons for Trump critics and his own family members.
Then, we talk about Trump’s Executive Orders and whether there’s a growing appetite for something resembling a more monarchical presidency
Finally, we head to Politicology+ where we discuss Donald and Melania Trump launching memecoins (don’t worry, we’ll explain) and the serious ethical questions they raise
Joining Ron Steslow on this week’s panel:
Liam Donovan (Principal at Bracewell LLP)
Marc Caputo (Senior Politics Reporter at Axios)
On this week’s Lobby Shop, we dug into Trump’s second inauguration and GOP politics.
In the Lobby Shop’s first episode of 2025, co-hosts Liam Donovan, Caitlin Sickles and Dylan Pasiuk convene to analyze the political environment ahead of President-elect Trump’s second inauguration. The group explores the challenges facing Speaker Johnson in a very narrowly divided Congress, the enduring influence of Trump on the Republican Party and the Democrats’ growing sense of resignation in legislative struggles. The discussion also highlights the ongoing confirmation hearings and the outsized role of figures like Elon Musk in shaping party dynamics. As they look ahead to the next administration, the hosts wonder what these developments mean for Republicans’ leadership and direction.
I joined Tim Miller on The Bulwark podcast, alongside Rep. Brendan Boyle, to talk about tax cuts and reconciliation.
Trump talked a lot more about Hannibal Lecter during the campaign than one of his actual top priorities: extending his 2017 tax cuts. With those $4.5 trillion in cuts set to expire by the end of the year, that’s the first major item of business for congressional Republicans. But how they get paid for will affect people’s lives. Tim takes a deep dive into the reconciliation process that would allow Republicans to make deep cuts to programs without having to work with Democrats. Plus, the billionaire plutocrats staffing the new administration and the potential for corruption.
Rep. Brendan Boyle and Liam Donovan join Tim Miller.