Republican Party

Markets were thrown for a loop in the past 24 hours, with the Dow first soaring nearly 400 points on Thursday on expectations that tax reform was a done deal, when drama emerged just after the close when the Senate tax bill came this close to falling apart when the proposed "Trigger" was ruled as invalid, pushing a Thursday tax vote to this morning, and as of this moment the bill appears in limbo with the GOP scrambling to find ways to appease the sudden loud opposition among budget hawks. UBS economist Paul Donovan summarized it best this morning:

Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

The tax "reform" currently being discussed in Washington is mostly a political exercise for politicians who can use the process to extract more campaign contributions from supporters, and punish non-supporters. The actual tax burden imposed on Americans overall will change little.

Following the backing of Sen. John McCain on the GOP tax reform bill, markets have surged to new all time highs as tax-sensitive banks lead the way, with Bloomberg reporting that odds for the tax bill's passage may increase to "near-certainty" if the Senate can finish its version in the days ahead, citing Evercore ISI.  And speaking of banks, the KBW bank index is up over 1.3% to the highest since Oct. 2007, outpacing the S&P 500’s 0.7 percent gain.

Update (5:55PM EST): After a full day of debating the GOP tax reform bill, the Senate has now approved a motion to...drum roll please...debate the GOP tax reform bill.  As we detailed below, this was the first big test for the GOP's tax bill before the entire Senate and it narrowly passed with a vote of 52-48.  No Democrats voted in favor of the procedural motion to begin debate and all Republicans towed the party line.

Authored by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,

The GOP has become so politically desperate that they might as well enact a two-word statute and be done with it. It would simply read: Tax Bill!