Chuck Grassley Dropped From Conference Committee After Comments

Senator Chuck Grassley took to Twitter this morning to personally apologize to President Donald Trump about not being to be able to fight for his tax plan on the House-Senate conference committee. Iowa’s senior senator was apparently dropped from the committee that will draft the final legislation that gets sent to Trump’s desk.

@realDonaldTrump I'm the most Senior member of Senate Finance Comm I was dropped as Conferee So I won't be in front line fighting for what u and I believe to cut taxes

— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) December 7, 2017

The move by Republicans to downgrade Grassley’s role in the process comes days after the senator’s widely-panned quote on working people spending all their money on “booze or women or movies” garnered national headlines. The comment in relation to the estate tax confirmed what many people thought about the Republican tax bill – that the GOP only cared about the wealthy based on an arrogant, elitist worldview of the working class.

It’s no surprise that Republicans don’t want Grassley anywhere near the final process. He’s probably not someone who would be the best messenger in the press right now to talk about specific measures in the legislation.

The Senate voted yesterday to go to a conference committee with the House to reconcile the differences between the two chambers’ versions of the tax bill. They are looking to finish up their work on it by Christmas so that Republicans and Trump can finally say they passed one major piece of legislation in their first year.

by Pat Rynard
Posted 11/7/17