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After their latest attempt to repeal Obamacare died with John McCains knife in its back, Republicans are ready to move on. Theyre officially tuning out Donald Trumps ongoing Twitter tirades about going back to the drawing board, and talking about focusing on the one thing they care about more than slashing Medicaid: slashing tax rates.

Theres plenty riding on the tax-reform effort, for both the G.O.P. and for Trump. For Republican lawmakers, it would mean that having held their noses through the p---y tape, the Russian scandal, Sessionsgate, and Moochghazi might all have been worth it in the end. For Trump, successfully bringing down rates would not only mean putting a win on a scoreboard noticeably devoid of wins, but proving to the business community that he could come through in the clutch.

Of course, there are several monumental obstacles in their way. For starters, theres a reason nobody has re-written the tax code in a meaningful way in 30 years: tax reform is hard. Every tax break, loophole, deduction, subsidy, and credit has a constituency willing to douse Congress in lobbying money to keep their benefits. And thats to say nothing of actual American voters who depend on dozens of tax provisions to pay their mortgages, reduce their liabilities, and put their kids through college. Making matters worse, as always, is the White House itself, which isdespite Trumps tweet yesterday that there is No WH chaos!absolutely plagued by chaos. (So long, Mooch!) There is also the small fact that the president, himself, seems oddly determined to continue tilting at the Obamacare repeal windmill, even though Republican lawmakers are signaling forcefully that theyre ready to let it go.

The biggest obstacle of all, however, is the Democratic Party, which is as committed as ever to seeing the Trump agenda ground to a screeching halt. Worse, theyre effectively taunting Republicans by claiming theyre ready to work together on a bipartisan tax-reform dealessentially calling the G.O.P.s bluff.

In an August 1 letter to the president and G.O.P. leaders, signed by 45 Senate Democrats, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer wrote, We are writing to express our interest in working with you on bipartisan tax reform. For Republicans who believe they were put on earth to cut taxes, this line must have been music to their ears! Doves must have started singing, storm clouds must have been replaced by blue skies, and they would later tell people they could have sworn the framed photo of Ronald Reagan hanging over their desk smiled and winked. Unfortunately, this line represented the high point of the letter. Because Chuck Schumer was about to drop a bomb:

[The Democratic lawmakers ] made two blunt demands on taxes: They will not back any bill that gives new breaks to the wealthiest individuals and will not back any legislation that adds to the deficit.

Tax reform cannot be a cover story for delivering tax cuts to the wealthiest, the senators wrote. We will not support any tax plan that includes tax cuts for the top 1 percent. The Democrats added that they will not support any effort to pass deficit-financed tax cuts, which would endanger critical programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and other public investments in the future.

Of course, the plan that was put forth by the White House in April expressly delivers tax cuts to the wealthiest, by bringing the top tax rate to 35 percent and eliminating the inheritance tax, to say nothing of the people who will rush to reorganize their businesses as LLCs so that they can pay the corporate tax rate, which Team Trump wants slashed to 15 percent. And when we last checked in, the officials working hard on tax reform still hadnt figured out how to pay for all of their proposed tax cuts, with some people in the White House reportedly happy [to] just blow out the deficit. So yes, Schumer & Co. are totally ready and willing to team up with Republicans to get tax reform done, so long as tax reform looks literally nothing like what Republicans want.

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Chuck Schumer Trolls Republicans with Impossible Tax-Reform Offer - Vanity Fair

Ad will collapse in seconds CLOSE August 2, 2017 08/02/2017 11:41 am By Jen Kirby Share Tom Cotton. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Senate Republicans are helping President Donald Trump make good on one of his campaign promises to lower legal immigration. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia are set to unveil the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment Act, or RAISE Act, on Wednesday alongside Trump, whose administration has been working to help the senators shape the legislation, reports the Washington Post.

Cotton and Perdue first presented the bill in February, which would trim the number of green-card recipients that is, people that did it the right way by about half over the next ten years. To achieve this, the proposed legislation would tighten visa eligibility for family members, limiting it primarily to children under the age of 21 and spouses. Grandparents, for example, could get screwed for real this time.

That also reflects the bills goal to help shift the U.S. immigration system toward a more merit-based model, and away from the chain system, which focuses on family unification. While the details on this arent exactly clear, the proposed legislation would decrease the number of temporary visas for lower-skilled workers, while making some changes to attract more people with specialized skills.

Finally, the bill reportedly includes a refugee cap of 50,000, and would scrap the diversity lottery, which accounts for about 50,000 visas from countries that tend to have lower immigration rates to the United States.

While theres broad consensus that the U.S. immigration system should be reformed and updated, the question of how is where all agreement breaks down. Democrats are almost certainly going to oppose the RAISE Act in its current form, and as New Yorks Ed Kilgore pointed out earlier this year, it may be a tough sell for business-oriented Republicans, or more moderate GOPers who represent more diverse constituencies though, as the health-care battle made clear, you really never know.

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This complex in the Rockaways was rebuilt and is clean, well-maintained, and safe.

Two senators, alongside Trump, will propose halving the rate over the next ten years.

After Kellys first 48 hours on the job, even Trump is on his best behavior for his new chief of staff.

She only reports real (a.k.a. positive) stories about the White House.

The civil-rights division is preparing to tackle discrimination against white people.

The Trump administration and Ed Butowsky, the conservative commentator at the center of a new lawsuit, cant seem to agree.

Legally, it may have been on the record, but the spirit of it was off.

The tax reform ruse has been blown.

The newspaper didnt release the full transcript of this curious conversation with Trump, so Politico did.

Out of the spotlight, HHS secretary Tom Price has been busily dismantling regulations that hold his fellow physicians accountable for results.

The Senate overwhelmingly approved his appointment, 92 to 5.

Kelly Roberts is also a GOP donor and the mother of two reality-TV stars. Native Slovenian Melania Trump had a strong hand in the choice.

For a long time Dean Heller looked likely to thwart his partys drive for health-care legislation. Then he flipped back, but the GOP failed anyway.

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He also addressed those Dancing With the Stars rumors.

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The leader is defiant over his controversial vote as two opposition leaders are reportedly arrested.

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Senate Republicans Have a Plan to Lower Legal Immigration - New York Magazine

A key moment came in the 1970s, when Irving Kristol, the godfather of neoconservatism, embraced supply-side economics the claim, refuted by all available evidence and experience, that tax cuts pay for themselves by boosting economic growth. Writing years later, he actually boasted about valuing political expediency over intellectual integrity: I was not certain of its economic merits but quickly saw its political possibilities. In another essay, he cheerfully conceded to having had a cavalier attitude toward the budget deficit, because it was all about creating a Republican majority so political effectiveness was the priority, not the accounting deficiencies of government.

The problem is that once you accept the principle that its O.K. to lie if it helps you win elections, it gets ever harder to limit the extent of the lying or even to remember what its like to seek the truth.

The rights intellectual and moral collapse didnt happen all at once. For a while, conservatives still tried to grapple with real problems. In 1989, for example, The Heritage Foundation offered a health care plan strongly resembling Obamacare. That same year, George H. W. Bush proposed a cap-and-trade system to control acid rain, a proposal that eventually became law.

But looking back, its easy to see the rot spreading. Compared with Donald Trump, the elder Bush looks like a paragon but his administration lied relentlessly about rising inequality. His sons administration lied consistently about its tax cuts, pretending that they were targeted on the middle class, and in case youve forgotten took us to war on false pretenses.

And almost the entire G.O.P. either endorsed or refused to condemn the death panels slander against Obamacare.

Given this history, the Republican health care disaster was entirely predictable. You cant expect good or even coherent policy proposals from a party that has spent decades embracing politically useful lies and denigrating expertise.

And lets be clear: were talking about Republicans here, not the political system.

Democrats arent above cutting a few intellectual corners in pursuit of electoral advantage. But the Obama administration was, when all is said and done, remarkably clearheaded and honest about its policies. In particular, it was always clear what the A.C.A. was supposed to do and how it was supposed to do it and it has, for the most part, worked as advertised.

Now what? Maybe, just maybe, Republicans will work with Democrats to make the health system work better after all, polls suggest that voters will, rightly, blame them for any future problems. But it wouldnt be easy for them to face reality even if their president wasnt a bloviating bully.

And its hard to imagine anything good happening on other policy fronts, either. Republicans have spent decades losing their ability to think straight, and theyre not going to get it back anytime soon.

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Who Ate Republicans' Brains? - New York Times

2016 Election Results, by County Carrie Dunn / NBC News

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., whose state has just two options for insurance in the individual market, said that its not about politics but making sure people dont suffer.

We have to do something to reduce premiums, we have to stabilize the market or real people are going to get hurt, Rounds said. I dont think the American people want us to simply walk away and let this think explode which is what its doing.

But Trump vacillates between urging Republicans to keep working and making statements that make the insurance system stable and predictable.

And Republicans are starting to blame Trump for some of the health systems problems.

Im troubled by the uncertainty that has been created by the administration, said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, on NBCs Meet the Press on Sunday. The uncertainly of whether that subsidy is going to continue from month to month is clearly contributing to the destabilization of the insurance market.

Republicans are open to do something they wouldnt normally do to ensure that the system doesnt collapse: prop up Obamacare with federal funding.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who represents a state with just one or two insurers in most counties, has said throughout this process that his first priority is to help people who are facing few insurance choices. He plans to hold hearings soon on how to ensure that insurers stay involved in the current system.

Republicans will need to temporarily support some things we would not normally support over the longer term and I would hope Democrats would do that as well, said Alexander, chair of the Senate health committee.

A group of about 40 centrists Republican and Democrat members of the House of Representatives released a framework for fixing the problems with Obamacare Monday. At the top of their list is to fund the so-called cost sharing reduction payments and to create a stability fund to prop up the Obamacare exchange market.

That plan doesnt seem to have any real momentum yet and any idea that involves throwing money at the problem is likely going to be a last resort in the Republican Congress.

AshLee Strong, a spokesperson for Speaker Paul Ryan, responded saying, while the speaker appreciates members coming together to promote ideas, he remains focused on repealing and replacing Obamacare.

While Trump is urging Obamacares implosion, he is also continuing to push Republicans to hand him a victory. He met with Sens. Lindsey Graham R-S.C., Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Dean Heller, R-Nev., on Friday at the White House to discuss their plan to give federal funds to the states for states to implement components of their own health care plan. Sen. Cassidy had another meeting at the White House on Monday to continue discussions.

But theres not a lot of time. The deadline for insurers to set their plans and pricing for 2018 is at the end of September. And the administration is supposed to decide if it will pay the subsidies for low-income Americans by the end of August: two deadlines with major repercussions for the insurance markets.

But coming to an agreement is going to be difficult will likely need Democrats.

"There's just too much animosity and we're too divided on healthcare," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told Reuters.

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Health Care Collapse Not a Viable Option for Congressional Republicans - NBCNews.com

Schumer said he was all for the concept of a bill advanced by Rep. Thomas Reed that would mandate roughly $7 billion in federal cost-sharing subsidies. | Getty

ALBANY, N.Y. Sen. Chuck Schumer said Monday he has heard from 10 of his Republican colleagues in response to his call for a bipartisan approach to health care legislation.

No one thought Obamacare was perfect it needs a lot of improvements, Schumer (D-N.Y.) said after an unrelated news conference at Albany Medical Center. Were willing to work in a bipartisan way to do it. What we objected to was just pulling the rug out from it and taking away the good things that it did: Medicaid coverage for people with parents in nursing homes, for opioid treatment, for kids with disabilities, pre-existing conditions.

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The so-called skinny repeal bill, which would have removed some of Obamacares least popular provisions, failed early Friday in a 51-49 vote. According to The New York Times, Schumer told Sen. John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, that he was committed to a legislative effort in regular order to improve the health care system. McCain cast an unexpected and decisive "no" vote.

Schumer said he was all for the concept of a bill advanced by Rep. Thomas Reed (R-N.Y.) that would mandate roughly $7 billion in federal cost-sharing subsidies that reduce out-of-pocket costs for poor consumers. Schumer, the Senate's minority leader, said he wasnt sure whether legislation would emerge in a big bill or take several steps.

Well, well have to wait and see. The first step is to try and stabilize the system that means the cost-sharing which would reduce premiums and increase coverage. Both Democrats and Republicans Sens. [Tim] Kaine and [Tom] Carper and [Susan] Collins have talked about re-insurance plans, so the most severe cases go into a separate insurance fund, and that reduces costs, Schumer said. Those are immediate things, but in the longer term, Republicans have some ideas, we have some ideas, and well sit down and try to hash them out as Congress should do.

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Schumer: Republicans have been in touch about health care - Politico