Today’s edition of quick hits:
* It’s obviously going to pass: “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Friday that Republicans have the votes to pass the GOP tax bill, after Sen. Jeff Flake said he will support the legislation. ‘We have the votes,’ the Kentucky Republican told reporters on the Senate floor shortly before noon.”
* Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) will be the only Senate Republican to oppose the GOP tax plan, guaranteeing bipartisan opposition.
* Perhaps my favorite tweet from the Senate tax debate came from Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii): “After careful consideration I’ve decided to support this bill. Just kidding, I haven’t read it yet because it doesn’t exist yet and that would be ridiculous.”
* If only anyone could believe him: “President Trump tweeted on Friday that reports he would soon fire Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson were ‘fake news,’ and that ‘I call the final shots.’”
* On a related note, NBC News confirmed with two administration officials this afternoon that Rex Tillerson’s Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications, R.C. Hammond, is stepping down this month. * In case we didn’t have enough to worry about: “The federal government could run out of room to pay its bills by late March or early April unless Congress raises the federal borrowing limit, the Congressional Budget Office said in a new report Thursday.” * Noted without comment: “The Mercers, secretive billionaires who are among President Trump’s most powerful donors, also helped to fund Project Veritas, the controversial activist organization, tax filings obtained by BuzzFeed News show. Gravitas Maximus LLC — a Mercer investment vehicle through which he also funded the conservative outlet Breitbart — gave $25,000 to Project Veritas, according to a nonpublic portion of a 2012 tax form.” Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
