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Senior Senate GOP officials have grown concerned that Rep. Kevin Cramer's penchant for controversial remarks could damage their chances at one of the party's most prized opportunities to pickup the crucial seat occupied by Heitkamp, a rare Democratic statewide officeholder in the conservative state. Cramer's latest remark: Defending Sean Spicer this week in the aftermath of the White House spokesman's widely condemned comments about Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust.

Behind the scenes, there's a growing GOP push to woo a wealthy North Dakota state senator, Tom Campbell, who has the resources to largely self-fund a campaign against Heitkamp, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

Campbell is taking a series of steps to mount a challenge, putting together an organization with the resources that will let him run for a statewide office next year, according to Chip Englander, a political adviser to the state senator. Campbell "definitely" will run for either the House seat now occupied by Cramer or for the Senate seat next year, Englander said.

"He can even the score on Day 1," Englander said, suggesting Campbell could drop roughly $2 million into the campaign to immediately eliminate Heitkamp's financial advantage. He said Campbell would raise some money also if he mounts a run.

A final decision could come within a matter of weeks.

"On paper, it looks like he could win, but he also appears to have a few Akin-like tendencies that make a lot of people nervous," said one Senate GOP campaign veteran, who, like other top Republicans, asked for anonymity to assess the field candidly.

In an interview, Cramer pushed back, saying Washington Republicans don't understand his state, noting that he has held more than 400 town hall meetings since 2013 and won his statewide race with 69% of the vote last year. He said had Heitkamp's 2012 opponent, Rick Berg, relied on North Dakota consultants rather than Washington experts, "he'd be a United States senator today."

"This is what the people in the swamp think: We can't have this overexposed guy who has 100% name ID and says things that are on his mind," Cramer, an early support of President Donald Trump, told CNN. "What they don't calculate is how very much appreciated that is in places like North Dakota."

Cramer said he is still undecided on if he'll run for the Senate, saying a decision would come in a matter of months. But Cramer, who met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell about a possible run in December, said "not at all" when asked if Cambell's prospective candidacy would dissuade him from running for Heitkamp's seat.

Cramer got national attention this week when he said that there was some "validity" to Spicer's comments that Hitler did not use chemical weapons in World War II. While Spicer apologized for his remarks, Cramer said it was a "factual" statement that Hitler didn't use chemical weapons on the "battlefield" similar to what's happened in Syria.

"I can't even believe that anybody in the media, much less all of the major networks, led with this story," Cramer said earlier this week. "A spokesperson, who by the way made a poor illustration, but it's not completely, it's not without some validity."

Cramer has made other controversial remarks in the past, including after Democratic women wore white to highlight the women's suffrage movement during Trump's speech to Congress earlier this year. Cramer called them "poorly dressed" with "bad-looking white pantsuits."

On Friday, Cramer told CNN that the media "overblew" his comments on Spicer and said Republicans in Washington get caught up in the media frenzy, which he said is dismissed by voters back home.

"I know how North Dakotans think," Cramer said.

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Nervous about GOP congressman, Republicans woo new North Dakota Senate candidate - CNN

Sacramento Bee

Which California legislative Republicans represent pro-Clinton districts? Sacramento Bee Newly installed Senate Republican Leader Patricia Bates has three GOP-held swing seats to defend next year. The Laguna Niguel lawmaker also may want to keep an eye on her own race. Bates and 16 other legislative Republicans represent districts where ...

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Which California legislative Republicans represent pro-Clinton districts? - Sacramento Bee

Some influential Republicans in Congress dont want a fight President Trump is threatening to pick over extra Obamacare payments to insurers.

Trump suggested this week that as Congress seeks to fund the government beyond April, Republicans should refuse to pay for cost-sharing subsidies provided through the Affordable Care Act to low-income Americans. Theres widespread agreement that without the subsidies, insurers would be forced to hike premiums next year, worsening conditions in the Obamacare insurance marketplaces.

The president told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that not only would such a move cause Obamacare to die, it could also be used to force Democrats to negotiate on repealing the health-care law altogether. Without the payments, Obamacare is gone, just gone, Trump said.

[Trumps threat prompts Democrats to play hardball over Obamacare payments]

Many Republicans are well aware that the public is likely to blame them for premium increases, now that they control both Congress and the White House and have so far failed to agree on a health-care replacement plan. And Democrats are keenly aware of the shifting dynamics, seizing every opportunity they can to insist Republicans now own the health-care law.

The Democratic leadership in Congress says it will hold up the government funding bill that expires on April 28 in order to secure the payments if Trump decides to withhold them. But Republicans are unlikely to want to shut down the government or for Trump to withhold the payments in the first place.

I dont think Democrats will let this happen, but I frankly dont think the Republicans want it to happen either, said Timothy Jost, a health-law professor at Washington and Lee University.

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), who, as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, helped craft the GOP health-care plan, told constituents this week that the subsidies need to be funded, period.

It was a commitment made by the government to the insurers and the people, Walden said Wednesday at a town hall in his district. That needs to happen.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), who chairs the powerful Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over health care, has also said its important to fund the payments for insurers, although he stressed its a decision that the House leadership would have to make.

Its probably the right thing to do, I think, Cole told The Washington Post last month. Otherwise youre going to have insurance companies exiting the market.

Other top Republicans are remaining quiet about how to handle the subsidies, letting the White House lead the way. Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) isnt taking a position. A Brady spokeswoman said Friday that the congressman believes the administration is taking important steps to stabilize Obamacares collapsing marketplace.

(Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

The Trump administration must decide whether it will continue pursuing a GOP lawsuit to block the subsidies. The House sued the Obama administration for awarding the subsidies without a clear congressional appropriation and won in federal court last year. The Obama administration appealed the decision.

Now the GOP has the White House on its side and a new concern that Republicans will bear the public blame for problems with Obamacare. Trumps victory created a tricky new situation that House Republicans surely didnt envision when they filed the lawsuit, said Bill Pierce, a health policy expert at APCO Worldwide.

It is a situation entirely of their own doing, Pierce said.

Republicans have said they were fighting the awarding of insurer payments without permission from Congress not the subsidies themselves. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) hasnt said whether he wants to fund the subsidies in a spending bill later this month, and his office didnt respond Friday to a query about the issue.

We believe in Congress retaining its lawmaking power, but this lawsuit hasnt run its course, Ryan said late last month. While the lawsuit is running its course, the administration is exercising their discretion with respect to the [cost-sharing reductions].

The health-care law requires marketplace insurers to discount extra insurance costs beyond the monthly premium such as deductibles and co-payments for people earning less than 250 percent of the poverty level. Without federal payments to cover those discounts, its estimated that insurers would hike premiums by an average of 19 percent.

That reality is leading lawmakers such as Walden and Cole to back the subsidies, even if they want to get rid of the underlying law. The cost-sharing reductions would cost an estimated $7billion or $8billion in the next year, but with that cost already built in, Congress wouldnt have to come up with extra money to fund them.

If Trump pushes for withholding the payments, it could fuel a clash between these lawmakers and conservatives who want to damage Obamacare in any way they can.

Im not alone in my party in [wanting to fund the cost-sharing reductions], but there are a lot in my party that dont think that, Walden said.

Insurers are watching the situation with trepidation, with rapidly approaching deadlines for announcing whether they will continue selling plans on the insurance marketplaces next year. Kristine Grow, a spokeswoman for the trade association Americas Health Insurance Plans, said more plans will likely exit without the cost-sharing reductions.

A lot of plans are very likely to drop out of the market because of continued instability, Grow said.

Read more at PowerPost

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Republicans may not want Trump to end Obamacare payments - Washington Post

Tens of thousands of Americans are expected to turn out for Tax Day marches Saturday to protest Donald Trumps refusal to release his tax returns. And while theres little hope their pressure will prompt the president to reconsider his controversial decision to keep those financial records private, organizers and leading Democrats also aim to use the rallies as an opening salvo in the national tax reform debate thats expected to dominate much of the spring and summer.

RELATED:Americans Still Want to See Trump's Tax Returns

Tax policieslack a certain sexiness as a cause, one of the marchs national organizers, Maura Quint, concedes. But she and others on the executive committee are hoping that the progressive anger over Trump and his lack of transparency can help launch the discussion about tax fairness and economic justice, issues that are implicit in the debate over how to structurethe U.S. tax code. Were hoping this can kind of push those things to the forefront of discussion, says Quint, and make it clear as well, to all politicians not just Trump, that this is something that the American people do care about.

The idea for the march sprung, like much of the #Resistance organizing thats happened since Trumps election, out of social media. A day after the January 21 Womens Marches, which drew millions of protesters in a multinational show of fury against Trumps inauguration, two private citizens in different parts of the country tweeted calls for another protest. Trump claims no one cares about his taxes. The next mass protest should be on Tax Day to prove him wrong, tweeted Frank Lesser, a comedy writer who formerly worked for Comedy Centrals Colbert Report. That was echoed by Vermont Law School Professor Jennifer Taub, who urged a nationwide #showusyourtaxes protest on April 15. Their messages quickly went viral.

Quint, who helps nonprofit groups plan events and writes comedy on the side, remembers retweeting Lessers tweet, along with some stupid joke. Then, after seeing the enormous response the idea was generating online, she reached out to Lesser, who she knows through comedy circles, to offer to help plan it. People started Facebook page events for different cities, on their own, Quint says. Organizers began reaching to the various tax march planners around the country to suggest we should all do this together; well be much more powerful that way, she recounts. As of now, there are tax marches planned in 180 cities and counting.

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he arrives at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, for the Good Friday holiday and Easter weekend, April 13, 2017. Trump critics around the country are protesting his refusal to release his tax returns Saturday. Yuri Gripas/REUTERS

The planners are realistic about the chances the president, after refusing to release his tax returns throughout the 2016 campaign, will suddenly have a change of heart now. It was yet another precedent Trump bucked during his unorthodox run to the White Housethough theres no law requiring it, all major party candidates over the past several decades have voluntarily released their returns. Where the protests can have more of an impact is directing the anger many feel about the president hiding his tax returns towardthe policy debate that will affect all of theirs. It wasnt that long ago, after all, that a movement calling itself the Tea Party launched on Tax Day, 2009, around the issue of taxes and government spending.

Republicans on Capitol Hill and in the White House have made clear tax reform is a top priority for 2017. Hours after House Republicans canceled a vote on their health care proposal, Trump told reporters at the White House that, We will probably start going very, very strongly for the big tax cuts and tax reform, that will be next. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin even promised the government would pass a new tax law by August, although most GOP leaders now admit theres no way theyll meet that timeline.

In fact, they are still toiling over what basic elements to include in their proposal, with various factions within the party battling over exactly how to cut corporate and personal income taxes and how to make up the loss in government revenue that will result. House Republicans, led by Speaker Paul Ryan, unveiled a tax reform blueprint last year that would slash corporate and personal tax rates. House Republicans proposed paying for those cuts via deep cuts in Medicaid funding and by instituting a new tax on imported goods, known as a border adjustment tax. The former, however, was reliant on Republicans passing their Obamacare repeal bill, which is currently stalled. And Republicans are deeply divided on the border adjustment tax proposal.

The White House, meanwhile, has been noncommittal about that and many other provisions, even as Trump administration officials insist they will be the ones to determine the ultimate shape of the bill. I think its not clear what the White House strategy is on this, as you know theyre capable of floating trial balloons every 24 hours and then deflating them, says Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, the leading Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees tax policy. Wyden attended a meeting with the president on trade and taxes in March, alongside Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, his Republican counterpart on the Finance Committee, and Congressmen Kevin Brady and Richard Neal, the Houses leaders on tax policy. He insists there are are opportunities for bipartisan agreement on tax reformAmericans of all political philosophies understand how broken the system is, he says.

But Democrats are sure to loathe most of what Republicans are considering on taxes, given that their proposals would disproportionately benefit the wealthy, according to analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. The challenge for progressive critics is helping the public understand whats at stake, amidst all the arcane tax code talk. Wyden recounts how, at a recent town hall he hosted in Oregon, some people asked him about the tax changes Republicans had proposed in their repeal of Obamacare, and what the impact would be. I said, well, take a look at your paycheck, which shows deductions for the Medicare tax. Under the now-defunct GOP bill, the only people who would get a cut in their Medicare tax were couples making over $250,000 a year, he pointed out. Wydens listeners, he says, were beside themselves. Trump, himself, is also a powerful symbol of the way the wealthy are able to game the current tax codethe limited records that have been made public suggest he could have used several loopholes to dramatically reduce his own taxes.

Its those kinds of tax fairness issues that progressives are now hoping to rally people around as the reform debate heats up. One of the speakers in Washington, D.C. will be a fast food worker and Fight for $15 campaigner named Priscilla Evans, who, in prepared remarks, plans to talk about how the fast-food industry underpays its employees, forcing them to rely on taxpayer-funded public assistance. The labor union-backed Fight for $15, which is campaigning to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour around the country, is just one of roughly 70 progressive groups that have signed up as national co-sponsors of the march. Wyden and several Democrats in Congress are also scheduled to speak at the D.C. rally, which kicks off at the Capitol before marchers make their way down past the White House to the Lincoln Memorial.

Wyden says he plans to point to Trump to make the case the current system is broken. Youd like to think the president would say, hey, Id like to be part of the solution rather than contribute to the problem, which is what he is doing by breaking with 40 years of history and possibly taking advantage of some of the worst and most offensive abuses in the system.

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With Marches, Progressives Enter the Tax Reform Debate - Newsweek

As Americans face Tuesdays deadline to pay their taxes, the Trump administration is hinting that tax reform is up soon on its agenda, with the president predicting it will be an easier political lift than the botched GOP attempt to replace Obamacare.

He may be optimistic, because a key aspect of the tax overhaul would likely hurt some of the blue-collar voters who helped Trump win the presidency. Its known as a border adjustment tax.

The provision, which is used in many other nations, wouldnt tax goods that are exported but would tax imported products at about 20 percent. Its goal is to encourage companies to make their products in the United States, keeping jobs here. It would also raise up to $1 trillion in revenue over 10 years, an inflow that will be needed as most of the GOP tax plans being floated in Washington propose cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to at most 20 percent.

But critics, including big-box retailers like Costco and Walmart that would have to pay the tax because they import most of their products, predict the average American family would pay $1,700 more a year to cover the resulting increase in the price of clothes, phones and other items on their shelves.

That would make life even tougher for Kailey Norris, a single mother who makes a little less than the nations median annual household income of $55,775. Covering that spike would wipe out the $1,000 Norris is trying to save every year.

Kailey Norris carries daughter Khyla Robinson, 3, into her preschool.

Kailey Norris carries daughter Khyla Robinson, 3, into her preschool.

I think things are pretty tight already. I would feel that, said Norris, a case manager at a San Francisco nonprofit who lives in Oakland with her 3-year-old daughter. Im paying for her school, and trying to pay for dance class, saving for her birthdays. And now Im looking at summer camps, and theyre really expensive.

I get what Trumps trying to do, Norris said. And it might not mean much to someone who makes a lot of money. But it would mean something to me.

People with a lot more money than Norris are concerned about its cost.

A new nationwide TV ad funded by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers organization rails against it: America voted for change, economic growth and to stop wasteful spending. But now, some members of Congress want a new, trillion-dollar ... consumer tax that could drive up your costs and hurt our economy. ... Tell Congress thats not the change were asking for.

Said Brent Gardner, chief government affairs officer for Americans for Prosperity, This is a tax aimed squarely at the Trump voter, and I hope this is one the administration will reject.

But Alan Auerbach, professor of economics and law at UC Berkeley who is known as the father of the border adjustment tax, dismissed the $1,700 increase as silly and outside the range of economic projections of what the tax might do. It also doesnt account for any tax cuts Americans may see under Trump or a stronger dollar as a result of the border tax change.

It would encourage companies to make their products in America, said Auerbach, who thinks it would also convince some Silicon Valley companies, such as Google and Apple, to stop basing operations in countries like Ireland, which have much lower corporate tax burdens.

If it sounds odd to hear somebody from Berkeley on the same political side as border tax supporter and Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, it is illustrative of how the tax has scrambled the usual partisan formations.

On one side are organizations backed by the free-trade-loving Kochs, standing shoulder to shoulder with progressive Democrats like Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Fremont, and retailers like Walmart.

On the other side backing the tax are major manufacturers like Boeing, linking arms with Ryan, Rep. Wayne Brady, R-Texas, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, and Trump strategist Steve Bannon.

Leaning toward the border adjustment tax, but not quite fully committed to it, is Trump. Though it would seem to fit squarely into his America First ethos, he doesnt like calling it a border adjustment tax. To him, thats bad branding, as he explained on the Fox Business Network this week.

Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle

(l-r) Kailey Norris goofs around with her daughter Khyla Robinson, 3, as she puts her in the car to go home from her pre-school in the Haight in in San Francisco, California, on Friday, April 14, 2017.

(l-r) Kailey Norris goofs around with her daughter Khyla Robinson, 3, as she puts her in the car to go home from her pre-school in the Haight in in San Francisco, California, on Friday, April 14, 2017.

(r-l) Kailey Norris picks her daughter Khyla Robinson, 3, from her pre-school in the Haight in San Francisco, California, on Friday, April 14, 2017.

(r-l) Kailey Norris picks her daughter Khyla Robinson, 3, from her pre-school in the Haight in San Francisco, California, on Friday, April 14, 2017.

Khyla Robinson, 3, goofs around in her carseat as she gets driven by her mother Kailey Norris (not pictured) to her pre-school in Oakland, California, on Thursday, April 13, 2017.

Khyla Robinson, 3, goofs around in her carseat as she gets driven by her mother Kailey Norris (not pictured) to her pre-school in Oakland, California, on Thursday, April 13, 2017.

Kailey Norris stops to pet a dog named Taz (center) with owner John Keegan (left) as she walks from her car to her office in the Haight district of San Francisco, California, on Thursday, April 13, 2017.

Kailey Norris stops to pet a dog named Taz (center) with owner John Keegan (left) as she walks from her car to her office in the Haight district of San Francisco, California, on Thursday, April 13, 2017.

Kailey Norris walks from her car to her office in the Haight district of San Francisco, California, on Thursday, April 13, 2017.

Kailey Norris walks from her car to her office in the Haight district of San Francisco, California, on Thursday, April 13, 2017.

Kailey Norris walks from her car to her office in the Haight district of San Francisco, California, on Thursday, April 13, 2017.

Kailey Norris walks from her car to her office in the Haight district of San Francisco, California, on Thursday, April 13, 2017.

Kailey Norris sings with her daughter Khyla Robinson (not pictured) as she drives her to pre-school in Oakland, California, on Thursday, April 13, 2017.

Kailey Norris sings with her daughter Khyla Robinson (not pictured) as she drives her to pre-school in Oakland, California, on Thursday, April 13, 2017.

Kailey Norris (left) straps her daughter Khyla Robinson, 3, (right) into her car seat as they make their way to pre-school in Oakland, California, on Thursday, April 13, 2017.

Kailey Norris (left) straps her daughter Khyla Robinson, 3, (right) into her car seat as they make their way to pre-school in Oakland, California, on Thursday, April 13, 2017.

Below, Kailey Norris says goodbye to her daughter Khyla Robinson, 3, at preschool in the Haight- Ashbury. Khyla hid in a cubby and didn't want her mom to leave.

Below, Kailey Norris says goodbye to her daughter Khyla Robinson, 3, at preschool in the Haight- Ashbury. Khyla hid in a cubby and didn't want her mom to leave.

Khyla Robinson, 3, goofs around in carseat as she gets driven by her mother Kailey Norris (not pictured) to her pre-school in San Francisco, California, on Thursday, April 13, 2017.

Khyla Robinson, 3, goofs around in carseat as she gets driven by her mother Kailey Norris (not pictured) to her pre-school in San Francisco, California, on Thursday, April 13, 2017.

How a tax plan unites progressives, the Koch brothers and Walmart

I dont like the word adjustment, because our country gets taken advantage of, to use a nice term, by every other country in the world, Trump said. So when I hear border adjustment, adjustment means we lose. We lose. So I dont like the term border adjustment.

But when you say a reciprocal tax and Im not saying thats what Im doing but there has to be a certain reciprocal nature to it. But when you say reciprocal tax, nobody can get angry, Trump said. Which says more about semantics than tax policy.

In California, analysts say the tax would have a mixed effect on some of the states iconic industries. Even though the states agriculture sector is a net exporter, a spokesman for the California Farm Bureau said the group is neutral on the tax.

Thats because while California farmers export around $25 billion worth of products annually, many also import equipment from overseas, said Dan Sumner, a professor of agriculture and economics who directs the University of California Agricultural Issues Center.

Sumner said farmers would be hurt if the tax triggers a trade war with some of Californias best export markets, like Mexico or the European Union.

Even though the United States has a loony corporate tax structure, we have to do this in a smart way, Sumner said. We dont want to create a system that takes away our big export destinations.

The tech industry is divided, too. As Hewlett-Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman told CNBC earlier this year: Everything that is in our products comes from overseas. That supply chain has taken 30 years to set up. So when all those components come in and are taxed, its not going to be good. This does not create jobs. It actually lowers the number of jobs for many, many companies.

But the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a public policy and trade organization that represents 400 top tech companies, hasnt taken a position, and wont until it sees a more fleshed-out version of Trumps tax plan.

The border adjustment tax would significantly change how the innovation economy operates, as it has the potential of choosing winners and losers among some of the largest contributors to our economy, said Carl Guardino, the groups president.

Khanna, who represents parts of Silicon Valley and went on trade missions when he worked at the Commerce Department, worried about a trade war threatening global economic stability.

We shouldnt be the ones throwing bombs at a financial global stability that we stand to benefit the most from as a country, Khanna said. We would pay more as consumers. More for our laptops. More for clothes. Its really a tax on the middle class.

Politically, Khanna didnt understand why Trump would support it.

Its going to hurt many of the folks who voted for him, Khanna said, And thats why its very, very surprising that hes pushing this.

If prices for imported toys and clothes would rise, Norris doesnt know whether she would buy from local stores. Shed like to, but theyre usually a lot more expensive.

My concern is that people who can afford it are still going to pay whatever the new price is, she said. But thats not going to work for the rest of us who are on a budget.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli

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How a tax plan unites progressives, the Koch brothers and Walmart - San Francisco Chronicle