Just passing through

NOTE: NOTHING IN THE FOLLOWING TEXT IS MEANT TO SUGGEST THAT I INTEND TO CRITICIZE REPUBLICANS FOR BLOWiNG UP THE DEFICIT. I CRITICIZE SENATOR CORKER FOR HIS HYPOCRISY IN PRETENDING WITH SUCH DRAMA QUEEN INTENSITY THAT HE CARES ABOUT THE DEFICIT WHEN HE DOES NOT AND FOR BREAKING HIS WORD, AND I CRITICIZE THE GOP FOR THROWING AWAY THE MONEY ON PEOPLE WHO ALREADY HAVE TOO MUCH INSTEAD OF TRYING TO GET IT TO THOSE WHO NEED IT. I DO NOT BELIEVE DEFICITS IN THEMSELVES ARE WRONG. I BELIEVE IT IS NECESSARY TO BORROW MONEY IN ORDER TO MAKE PROGRESS. I CONDEMN THE AUSTERITY INTO WHICH I EXPECT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY TO FALL WHEN THEY COME INTO POWER. I BELIEVE THEY SHOULD INSTEAD INVEST. I HOPE THIS IS CLEAR.

"I'm shocked, shocked to find an item in this legislation that will save me some hundreds of thousands of dollars a year!" "Your winnings, Senator."

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) sent a letter on Sunday to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) asking how a provision that would potentially benefit real estate moguls, including Corker, made it into the final version of the Republican tax-reform bill.

“Because this issue has raised concerns, I would ask that you provide an explanation of the evolution of this provision and how it made it into the final conference report,” Corker wrote.

Which provision is that, Senator? The part that says you can deduct 20% of the real estate rental income in your portfolio—somewhere between $240,000 and $1.4 million—from your gross income, lowering your effective marginal rate to somewhere south of 30%?

People are finding it hard to believe he didn't know, since John Cornyn (second-ranking Republican on the conference committee) has explained on national television that the provision in question was added in the scramble to "cobble together the votes we need to get this bill passed" and Corker's vote was the only one we know they didn't have.

Constantly asking me

Strange statement by Bob Corker considering that he is constantly asking me whether or not he should run again in '18. Tennessee not happy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2017

I'll bet you any money Corker has never once asked Trump if he should run in 2018. This is a key to one particular form of Trump falsehood (as when he claimed that at his dinner in Hamburg with Shinzo Abe and Moon Jae-in "everybody was talking about John Podesta"). In reality he does all the talking and doesn't realize that everybody else is silent. He has nothing to talk about with Corker (chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a key supporter of Trump's idiotic proposal to repeal the PPACA without replacing it) except lecturing him about whether he should run in 2018 or not, so that's what he does every time they meet, and then he comes away with the improbable belief that Corker wanted to know what he thought.

Happier times. Image via CNBC.

Cross-posted at No More Mister Nice Blog.

Executive finesse

Updated 4/18

Finesse and Reptile, via ComicVine.

Obama Yields, Allowing Congress Say on Iran Nuclear Deal

says the New York Times, but between you and me, BooMan captured the story a little more accurately: Senator Corker got rolled. I say "between you and me" because it wouldn't be really helpful for Corker to understand this just at present, or (more likely) be compelled to acknowledge in public that he understands it. A huge part of the art of negotiation as our president understands it is to leave the other person thinking that she or he has won, at least for the short term.

Let me, as Friedman would say, explain.