dollars in tax loopholes? joe, you re spot on, and everything you just said, i wouldn t disagree with a single thing. i can tell you i ve met with senator corker on a number of things. he is, indeed, a deficit hawk. i went over to meet with him and talk to him about really this budget agreement that they have in the senate. but you re right. i mean, we have already started to see, but we are going to see legions of k street lobbyists coming in. that s why it s important for members of freedom caucus to make sure their voices are heard. we believe our lobbyists are the millions of forgotten american men and women back home that don t have hob ylobbyists. we had probably ten or 15 cfos here yesterday from companies talking about what they want to see. the interesting thing is what i ve shared is everybody is for
you re starting to change the tax code to give tax cuts to one group or take tax cuts away from one group, that is when the most intense lobbying comes. it s why we re going to be talking to bob corker about, mark meadows is right. he s a deficit hawk. and i personally, i don t know how they get the votes to close $4 trillion in tax loopholes. if they can do it, god bless them, but i don t think they can. all right. bob costa, you have new reporting on the republican civil war that s already shaping next year s midterms along deeply personal lines. allies of mitch mcconnell are engaging in a new assault aimed at discrediting former trump chief strategist steve bannon. former mcconnell chief of staff has described steve bannon as a white supremacist. and after a challenger danny
resentment is not a governing philosophy. and at some point, you actually have to govern, and you have to have competencies in governing. and you move ahead with certain policies that really have animated the party for generations. and i think until we return to that, we re going to be we re going to be in trouble electorally. joining the discussion now, e.j. dionne, opinion writer for the washington post and msnbc political analyst and co-author of the new book one nation after trump. and jonathan alter is back with us. e.j., the question now is what will jeff flake do in the senate? and as the tax bill approaches, if it has a massive explosion of the deficit built into it, which it looks like it s likely to at this point, jeff flake will have a choice. is he a deficit hawk or is he absolutely married to tax cuts?
so what does jeff flake do now? i don t mean two years from now when he is not a senator. i don t mean the next stop in his career. i mean, what does he do now in the united states senate? jeff flake has been a reliable trump vote so far in the senate vote. but now that he doesn t have the pressures of a republican primary election in arizona, what does he do? jeff flake is a member of the senate foreign relations committee, where his chairman, bob corker, now stands accused by donald trump of trying to block the republican tax bill, which senator corker just might do, because he says he s not going to vote for tax cuts that increase the deficit. and the republican bill, no matter how it is written, is definitely going to increase the deficit. jeff flake likes to think of himself as a deficit hawk too. the trump-mcconnell tax bill in the senate will test just how much jeff flake cares about the deficit. what it won t test is just how much jeff flake cares about
begins. jonathan, donald trump directly interpreted that as a criticism of him. yeah. so, the range on what this tax bill does to the deficit ranges from 1.5 trillion with a t, to 2.2 trillion. we re talking real money, and this decision on the 401(k)s brings it up closer to 2 trillion because it s hundreds of billions of dollars that they re talking about. so, i don t actually think it s that hard of an idea logical test for jeff flake. he s been a deficit hawk. this is an enormously irresponsible bill for any principled republican. yes, he likes tax cuts, but this is an insane bill if you care at