Subject: ?Axios AM: Mike's Top 10 — From closer to loser: White House plans to take the wheel on tax reform — Rising CEOs — "The Monster That's Eating Hollywood"
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2017 09:33:13 -0400 (EDT)

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From closer to loser: White House plans to take the wheel on tax reform =E2�� Rising CEOs — "The Monster That's Eating Hollywood"

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Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·Mar 25, 2017

1 big thing: Inside the meltdown

I've got this! Speaker Ryan, at Capitol, announces he's pulling bill / A='s J. Scott Applewhite)

When the balky hardliners of the House Freedom Caucus v=sited the White House earlier this week, this was Steve Bannon's opening l=ne, according to people in the conference room in the Eisenhower Executive=Office Building:

"Guys, look. =/strong>This is not a discussion. This is not a debate. You have no choice=but to vote for this bill."

Bannon's point was: This is the Republican platform. You're the conservative wing of the =epublican Party. But people in the room were put off by the dictatorial mi=dset.

One of the members replied: "You know, the =ast time someone ordered me to something, I was 18 years old. And it was m= daddy. And I didn't listen to him, either."

Started on th= wrong foot: Repeal-and-replace was always snakebit. Ryan had beg=n the process before Trump's inauguration. "He boxed us in," said one pers=n close to the fight. "We didn't have any choice."

Was always wobbly: Trump relied too long on assurances from =hief of Staff Reince Priebus and HHS Secretary Tom Price that they had the=process in hand. And "Ryan was telling him it was fine, and they'd bring i= together at the end." Instead, the bottom fell out.

=strong>What's next: White House officials plan to plunge ahead wi=h ambitious tax reform, but they know it'll be harder now. As one of the l=ssons learned, look for the White House to drive the truck on tax =eform – to set the policy and work the members from the b=ginning, undercutting Ryan. So the border adjustment tax, a favorite of Ry=n but viewed skeptically at best by the White House, is less likel= to be part of Trump's tax reform bid.

What happens today: Aides say Trump was calm yesterday. But as =he vicious post-mortems piled up, friends — knowing he would hate-=ead them — feared for today's Twitter feed.

Pe=spective: It's hard to overstate the magnitude of the Day 64 defe=t. President Trump, who made repeal-and-replace a central theme of his cam=aign, and House Republicans, who made it the central theme of campaign since 2010, lost in a publicly humiliating way despite=controlling every branch of government and enjoying margins in th= House rarely seen in the past century.

2. The policy aftermath

Reality check from Axios' David Nather:"There's really no such thing as 'leaving Obamacare in place' under a Republican administration that=hates it. The law has needed a tremendous amount of implementation funding=and support from the Obama administration, and it's not going to get it un=er Trump and [HHS Secretary Tom] Price. And some of the problems in the in=urance market have been caused by the loss of 'risk corridor' payments for=health plans with expensive customers — which were cut because of =epublican opposition."

3. Postgame

Tiles in a mosaic that'll be studied and talked about, =s long as people talk about politics:

NBC's Chuck Todd to Lester Holt on "Nightly News":="If you read between the lines, he's trying to blame Democrats. B=t then he also is quietly admitting: He cannot do big things in Congress .=. without the help of Democrats."

NY. Times' Maggie Haberm=n to CNN's Anderson Cooper: "We do know, based on history, that h= has a habit of kind of stewing for a little while. ... On Saturday �=94 he lives alone. He will be alone in the White House residence, watching=television — possibly right now. ... I think he was a little gobsm=cked."

WashPost's Bob Costa, Ashle= Parker and Phi Rucker: "Still in a suit jacket and striped red t=e Wednesday evening, the president dialed Rep. Joe Barton, a wavering Repu=lican from Texas, and placed the call on speakerphone. He put his finger t= his lips to shush the clutch of advisers that always surrounds him. The p=esident listened as the congressman ticked through his concerns, sipping f=om a glass of Diet Coke and jotting down notes with a thick, black Sharpie="

Politico's Tim Alberta: "It was Thursday afternoon and =embers of the House Freedom Caucus were peppering the president with monki=h concerns ... 'Forget about the little shit,' Trump said ... 'Let's focus=on the big picture here.' ... For many of the members, the 'little shit' m=ant the policy details that could make or break their support for the bill="

N.Y. Times Quote of the Day ... Speaker Ryan: "We're going to be living with Obamacare f=r the foreseeable future."

See the front pages ... WashPost, "Trump and Ryan meet defea=" ... N.Y. Tim=s, "G.O.P. REVOLT SINKS BID TO VOID HEALTH LAW" ... Wall Street Journal, "Divided GOP Drops Health Bill" ... L.A. Times, "REPUBLICAN REPEAL OF OBAMA=ARE IMPLODES" ... Orange County (Calif.)=Register, "Obamacare still law of land."

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4. Why you need Axios

What you've always dreamed of ... Our=Justin Green took the tick-ticks from all the papersand combined them into on= timeline. Genius!

5. Lead of the week

@CostaReports

W=shPost's Bob Costa: "President Trump called me on my cellphon= Friday afternoon at 3:31 p.m. ... [I]t was a blocked number. ... [I]t was=the president calling from the Oval Office. His voice was even, his tone m=ted. He did not bury the lead. 'Hello, Bob,' Trump began. 'So, we just pul=ed it.'"

Costa live-Tweeted his scoop: "Still on p=one. ... 'I don't blame Paul,' Trump tells me ... What a convo. I'll type =t up quick."

Axios' Jonathan Swan had reported sho=tly before noon that Ryan was considering pulling the bi=l: "What leadership keenly understands is that the bottom falls out on=a vote like this. ... If GOP leaders put the bill on the floor without the=votes to win, it won't lose by a handful, it will lose badly."

But Trump broke his own news that he had agreed.

=rump told Costa: "I never said I was going to repeal and replace =n the first 61 days."

"Turning=to an aide, Trump asked, 'How many days is it now? Whatever.' He =aughed. ... 'I would say [we were] within anywhere from five to 12 votes,'=Trump said ... Does Trump regret starting his agenda this year with health=care? 'No, I don't ... But in a way I'm glad I got it out of the way.' ...=

"As Trump tried to ha=g up the phone and get back to work, I asked him to reflect ... on lessons=learned. ... 'Just another day,' Trump said, flatly. 'Just another day in =aradise, okay?' He paused. 'Take care.'"

6. Lookahead to tax reform

Stef Kight / Axios

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, in a conversation wit= me yesterday morning at the debut Axios News Shapers event, said the admi=istration will plunge into whole-hog tax reform: "We're reforming both the=personal and the corporate side. We're not cutting this up and doing littl= pieces at a time."

Mnuchin slid a bit on his =arlier vow to finish tax reform by the August recess, saying that's always=been the optimistic goal: "And if we don't, we'll get it done right afterw=rds." When I asked him if that meant it'd be done by fall, he replied: "Ab=olutely."

On tackling another complex issue after=health care: "In a way, it's a lot simpler. It really is. It's a lot simpl=r because the goals of tax reform ... creating a middle-income tax cut, ab=ut creating personal tax simplification, and making U.S. businesses compet=tive. ... I think there is very, very strong support."

I a=ked him: "Pretend that I shop or work at Walmart. Make the case t= me that the border adjustment tax is good for me." He didn't: "[T]here's certain aspects of that tax that are attractive, and there=s certain aspects ... that are concerning. ... [O]ne of our concerns about=it is that if the currency moves, then the Walmart shopper shouldn't be im=acted. OK. But if the currency moves, that has an impact for our exporters="

7. Rising CEOs

"The World's Best CEOs: An Exclusi=e Barron's List — GM's Mary Barra and Microsoft's Satya Nadel=a join this year's roster of 30 outstanding corporate leaders":

"One newcomer this year, Mary Barra at General Motors, w=o graces our cover this week, exemplified traits that impressed us. Barra =lashed the car maker's costs by $4 billion, but GM hasn't cut corners; las= year, Chevrolet won the most J.D. Power Initial Quality awards of any aut=motive brand."

"Barra also has made an impression=in Washington, where she sits on the president's Strategic and Policy Foru= of economic advisors. She recently won plaudits from the administration f=r keeping some manufacturing jobs in Michigan."

"OTHER CEOS NEW to the list this year are Gary Dickerson at Applied Materials, Stephen Hemsley at UnitedHealth G=oup, Jen-Hsun 'Jensen' Huang at Nvidia, Phebe Novakovic at General Dynamics, and Martin Sorrell at WPP."
<=ul>

=/a>

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8. Europe is 60 today

The Economist

"Troubled EU renews vows in Rome on 60th anniversary" =E2�� AFP: "Meeting without Britain just days before it trigge=s its divorce from the EU, the other 27 countries signed a new declaration=on the Capitoline Hill where six founding states signed the Treaty of Rome=on March 25, 1957."

The Economist, "Europe at 60 ..= Can Europe be saved? If it is to survive, the European Union must become = lot more flexible": "A newly aggressive Russia under Vladimir Putin and, =n Donald Trump, an American president who is unenthusiastic about both the=EU and NATO, make this a terrible time for Europe to be weak and divided. =hat a project set up to underpin Europe's post-war security should falter =t the very moment when that security is under threat is a bitter irony."

9. "The Monster That’s Eating Hollywood"

Wall Street Journal front page, "THE NEW HOLLYWOOD VILL=IN: Netflix is hogging talent and pushing up prices to create shows, spurr=ng pushback," by Joe Flint and Shalini Rakmachandran:

=Netflix's spending on original and acquired programming this year=is expected to be more than $6 billion, up from $5 billion last year, more=than double what Time Warner Inc.'s HBO spends and five times as much as 2=st Century Fox's FX or CBS Corp.'s Showtime."

Why it matte=s: "Its shock-and-awe spending — combined with that of Am=zon and other new players — is driving up costs industrywide and c=eating a scarcity of people and equipment."

10. 1 fun thing: Watch those stairs!

John DePetro/The MMQB / SI.com

If you love your work, you'll love this piece from Spor=s Illustrated ... "24 Hours ... With Adam Schefter: What's life =ike for the NFL's top news-breaker on his biggest day of the year? We went=behind the scenes with ESPN's Adam Schefter for the whirlwind first day of=2017 free agency as he chased scoops."

=strong>"Schefter, 50, has been with ESPN for eight years, and has=become the gold standard in the increasingly competitive 24/7 business of =FL news. In December he signed a five-year, multimillion-dollar contract e=tension that is thought to make him the highest-paid information man in th= business and will keep him with ESPN through 2021. ... As The MMQB's Tim =ohan followed Schefter through the first day of free agency, one source of=Schefter's said when stories get hot, 'I don't call the team; I ca=l Schefter.''"

"A few =ears ago, Seth Markman, the senior coordinating producer who over=ees ESPN's NFL coverage, decided that Schefter shouldn't drive anymore. Ma=kman thought his reporter should be freed up to call and text at a=l times, so he could break more stories and avoid the hazard of t=xting while driving."

"Schefter=s so locked into his phone that producers have had to warn him at=times when he's approaching a staircase."

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