Subject: Axios Sneak Peek: accomplishment week — Sunday highlights — leak hunting
From: "Jonathan Swan" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2017 17:30:07 -0400 (EDT)

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Accomplishment week — Sunday highlights — leak hunting

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Axios Sneak Peek

By Jonathan Swan = ·Apr 30, 2017<=span>

Welcome to Sneak Peek, our weekly lookahead =or both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. I'd love your tips a=d feedback: jonath=[email-masked]. And please urge your friends and colleag=es to join the conversation by signing up for Sneak Peek. See you all=week in the Axios STREAM.

1 big thing: accomplishment week

AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

Famous last words but our sources at t=e highest levels in the White House and on Capitol Hill genuinely believe =wo things could happen this week:

A healthcare bill passes the=House.

Successful passage of a government funding bill. (I asked a=top source on Sunday afternoon what the final outstanding items were on th= bill and instead of listing items, as the source usually would, the sourc= kept saying "we're very close" and was confident congress would pass it b=fore the 1-week temporary spending bill expires.)

GOP leadersh=p is nervous about jinxing either of these events, and nobody wan=s to make bold proclamations about healthcare in particular (given how bur=ed they've been in the past), but the optimism is genuine. We're hearing <=trong>from folks who've been cynical all along that they really t=ink this could happen for the first time since version 1.0 failed.

What you need to know:

It's unlike=y there'll be any significant changes to the amended healthcare text as it currently stands.=/li>
House leadership is desperate to just get healthcare out of the Ho=se. They want it to become the Senate's problem for a while.

Mark =eadows is getting good reviews. Even Republicans in leadership who loathe =he Freedom Caucus leader admit he's delivered. He's got the big name, most=intractable conservatives like Jim Jordan to "yes" and it's a huge help th=t the most truculent conservative outside groups are now supportive.
<=i>Members are still digesting the amendment. Some of them went home Friday=to see their kids graduate, so have been a bit slow on the uptake. They've=been talking to the whip team throughout the weekend and there'll be more =eetings on Monday.

Moderates are still worried about higher costs =or people with pre-existing conditions. They're still irritated they weren=t consulted enough in the process. And they know the bill is going to get =ransformed in the Senate, so they aren't happy about taking a tough vote f=r something that'll never see the light of day.

What t=e White House thinks: Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus both genuin=ly believe a vote is imminent. It's widely acknowledged within the West Wi=g that they made a mistake the first time around by outsourcing the proces= to Paul Ryan and HHS Secretary Tom Price.

2. Corey's compliance

A hot topic of conversation the past 48 hours among sou=ces close to President Trump: Corey Lewandowski's decision not to register=as a lobbyist. Lewandowski, who runs a political consulting firm that adve=tises its proximity to the White House, talks to the president regularly, =ncluding visits to the West Wing. But he insists he's doing no lobbying fo= his clients, whatsoever.

This situation is fast developing =nto a major PR problem for Trump's former campaign manager. I'm t=ld multiple media outlets, including the New York Times, are investigating=Lewandowski's firm. Politico's Ken Vogel and Josh Dawsey publ=shed a deeply-reported story a couple of days ago that says a second f=rm Lewandowski co-founded appears to have offered access to the President.=/p>
The key paragraph:

A document provided to an=Eastern European politician by an international consulting firm that Lewan=owski co-founded this year promises to arrange "meetings with well-establi=hed figures," including Trump, Pence, "key members of the U.S. Administrat=on" and outside Trump allies. [Barry] Bennett...[Lewandowski's business pa=tner]... said that he hadn't seen the Washington East West Political Strat=gies document. He acknowledged, though, that he and Lewandowski started th= firm.

I asked Lewandowski on Sunday about his dec=sion not to register as a lobbyist. He wouldn't explain himself, but inste=d kept telling me to contact his clients. Lewandowski then sent me a state=ent from his firm's lawyer John Mino, which said the firm and its employee= "take their compliance obligation seriously," and are fully compliant wit= lobbying disclosure laws.

3. Trump's 100-day interview

President Trump had a testy sit-down to mark his first 100 days with Joh= Dickerson, host of CBS' "Face the Nation" (or, as Trump called the progra= to Dickerson's face: "Deface the Nation.")

Highlights that will echo into the week:

Trump is dead serious about t=lling the Chinese they'll get a better trade deal if they help with North =orea. China experts have called this strategy a folly — s=me worry President Xi will play Trump for a sucker — but Trump=told Dickerson: "if China can help us with North Korea and can solve that =roblem, that's worth making not as good a trade deal for the United States=... right?"

The President believes his superior trade-negotiation =kills will help solve the deficit problems caused by his massive tax cuts:="It's going to be made up by better trade deals. It's going to be made up =.. by many different, reciprocal tax. As an example, we have countries whe=e if we make a product and we send it to that country, they charge us 100%=tax. If they make the same product and send it to us, we charge them nothi=g. You think that's smart? It's not."

Note for tax wonks: Trump ha= always liked the idea of a border tax. It's just that the White House has=concluded the Republican leadership's "border adjustment tax" — a =ike on import taxes to raise $1 trillion over 10 years — is politi=ally dead. Targeted tariffs, outside of the tax reform process, seem much =ore likely.

Despite the dreams of fiscal conservatives, Trump ain=t reforming Medicare: "let me more clear. I'm not going to touch it, becau=e I said it."

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4. Sunday highlight reel

VP Mike Pence, to Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press":=/p>

Acknowledged the Trump tax plan could add to the deficit: "We=l maybe in the short term. But the truth is if we don't get this economy g=owing at three percent, or more as the president believes we can, we're ne=er gonna meet the obligations that we've made today."

=eince Priebus, White House chief-of-staff, to Jonathan Karl on AB='s "This Week":

On the ca=ried interest tax loophole (for hedge fund managers): "The presid=nt wants to get rid of carried interest. So that balloon's not going to st=y inflated very long. I can assure you of that."

On Trump inviting=the Philippines' brutal president, Rodrigo Duterte, to th= White House: "I'm not so sure it's a matter of honoring this president or=any of the facts that you've laid out there, it's really a matter of a pot=ntial for nuclear and massive destruction in Asia [with North Korea]...thi= is a different level of problem that we need cooperation among our partne=s in Southeast Asia."

5. 1 fun thing: West Wing leak guessing

The West Wing is a paranoid place, and officials there =re constantly trying to root out the leakers. At the highest level in the =hite House, everyone (and I do mean everyone) talks to reporters =ff-the-record or on background. It's just that different high-level offici=ls have their own favored reporters.

One simple leak-decodin= tactic that some officials use: scan reporters' Twitter feeds to=see who publicly defends or says sympathetic things about certain official=. Then keep that official's name in mind as the scoops roll in for that re=orter.

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