How is Congress supposed to work?

The old story was that the House and Senate could not get their budget act together because the Republicans in the House could not agree with the Democrats in the Senate. The new story is that the Republicans in the House can't agree with the Republicans in the Senate who can't agree with one another either. You see, the source of disagreement, American voters, is Republicans.

One of the reasons why there is so much disagreement is because there is no agreement on the party platform and the President has failed to advance a more detailed manifesto that guides legislative development. The Republican platform is false propaganda that is unactionable. President Trump has no concept of his responsibility to provide the details for four to eight years and is completely unprepared to govern. Those are the facts, and the nation's state is bleak as a result.

One big problem is that there is no one to believe as they are mostly a liar's club.

Senate Republicans eyeing alternative tax reform plan
BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 03/12/17 06:00 AM EDT  188 

Senate Republicans are exploring alternatives to Speaker Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) tax reform package, which hinges on a border adjustment tax proposal that is deeply unpopular in the upper chamber. 

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) says he won't proceed until the House bill hits a dead end, but senators are laying the groundwork for a new direction, expecting the House plan will either fail or require substantial revisions.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) this week pushed back the timeline on tax reform, warning it’s unlikely to be finished by the August recess as the Trump administration hopes. 

McConnell is giving the Senate more time amid a strong backlash from his conference against the House proposal to enact a 20-percent across-the-board tax on imports.
“I don’t think it’s going to pass over here. There’s not a lot of enthusiasm for it. We’re already working on what we’d like to do,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said of the so-called border adjustment tax. 

Hatch told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last month that his committee “is considering various proposals and things are moving forward rather rapidly at this time.”
Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.), a member of the Senate Republican leadership team, says he expects the Senate Finance Committee will mark up a tax reform bill. 

“Sen. Hatch’s view that the Senate should mark up a bill and I assume that’s what happens,” he said. 

It’s a contrast from the Senate GOP’s strategy for passing healthcare reform. Lawmakers expect McConnell to bring the House healthcare bill — should it pass the lower chamber — directly to the Senate floor, bypassing committee. 

Ryan argued in a meeting with Senate Republicans last month that the border adjustment tax would be necessary to raise $1.2 trillion to lower individual and corporate tax rates without adding to the deficit." 

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/323502-senate-republicans-eyeing-alternative-tax-reform-plan

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