The Note: Newest tax bill could be defining moment for Trump's presidency
— -- The TAKE with Rick Klein
You can call it tax reform, or a tax cut, or even the Cut Cut Cut Bill.
Very soon you won't be able to call it a hypothetical. And the struggles to even unveil it - as the House Ways and Means Committee hopes to do today - should be instructive about how much ground still needs to be covered, and how much is at stake for Republicans.
It is being cast as a test of Trump's legislative pull, as the last best shot at a major achievement in Congress this year. It's actually more than that – a test of Trump's commitment to championing the cause of those who brought him to office.
We know now that the bill is likely to limit 401(k) contributions – despite Trump's explicit vow that there will be "NO change to your 401(k)." It will also almost certainly mean a tax hike for millions of middle-income Americans in higher-tax states – despite the president's recent assurance that it will be a "middle-class bill."
That's the constituency – the middle class – that needs to be on board for tax reform to go through Congress, in this or any political environment.
When those closed doors open today that work will get underway.
The RUNDOWN with MaryAlice Parks
The House is also expected to begin a series of votes today to reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Congress let funding expire at the end of September for the incredibly popular program, which provides low-cost health insurance for an estimated 9 million children and 370,000 pregnant women nationwide each year.
Without federal funds this month, states have had to dip into savings to cover costs and some have warned they may have to start limiting enrollment soon.
While the House bill will likely be welcome news for state governments, considerable uncertainty remains. A partisan bill is moving through the Senate, but leadership there is still looking for ways to offset costs.
Big picture: the fact that a program like CHIP, with wide bipartisan support, is being pushed to the brink shows just how hard it has been for this Congress to pass any legislation and how difficult all coming votes may be in the next few months.
The president yesterday only further complicated an already messy legislative landscape going into the end of the year, when he restated that hard-line immigration policies were top priorities for him.
The TIP with Tara Palmeri
Liberal super PAC American Bridge has snapped up the website cutcutcut.org in anticipation of the rollout of the Republican tax plan on Thursday, since President Donald Trump has insisted to Republican leaders that the bill be dubbed "The Cut Cut Cut Act."
The URL redirects to bridgeproject.org, which describes Trump's tax cut plan as, "Betraying his campaign promises by selling out the middle class – and now helping kill and outsource American jobs."
"We went ahead and bought the domain CutCutCut.org," said economic policy spokesperson Andrew Bates in an e-mail to ABC News.
Bate's said the site has a new digital ad that describes how the tax reform plan is a "giveaway to large corporations and the rich, that millions of middle class people would face a tax increase, and that the proposal threatens more American jobs with outsourcing."
"Thought it would be an effective way to get ahead of the tax plan release."
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY:
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"I'm not under investigation, as you know," - President Donald Trump said in a telephone interview with the New York Times on Wednesday in recent discussions of his former campaign chief, Paul Manafort's indictment and his involvement with the Russia probe.
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