Politics

Following a report from the Joint Committee on Taxation, which unveiled late on Thursday afternoon that the Senate Tax bill would generate enough economic growth to lower its $1.4 trillion revenue cost by only about $458 billion over a decade - in other words it would still boost the deficit by roughly $1 trillion - in a dramatic showdown on the Senate floor, GOP leaders agreed to effectively increase taxes by $350 billion in response to a procedural ambush by deficit hawks led by Sen. Bob Corker that nearly killed the GOP tax reform bill.

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.

Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, has accused Attorney General Jeff Sessions of refusing to disclose information of vital importance to his committee’s probe into collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign by relying on a loose interpretation of executive privilege.

It's deja vu all over again in Saudi Arabia. Al Arabiya reports that a ballistic missile from Yemen has been intercepted on Thursday by Saudi air defense forces in southern city of Khamis Mushait in the south western province of Assir.

The missile attack is the second this month since the November 4 missile intercepted near King khalid International Airport in Riyadh.

Notably, Huthi TV is claiming that the missile "hit the target"...

Though it was mostly overlooked amid the Senate's crucial procedural vote on tax reform, the House Judiciary Committee late yesterday voted 19-11 in favor of a highly controversial bill, dubbed the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017, which would amend the federal criminal code to allow the concealed transport of handguns across state lines, so long as both states allow it.