Late Thursday night, the Senate Finance Committee voted to approve its tax plan, sending it to the Senate floor for a vote that could happen as early as just after Thanksgiving. While there are still major obstacles ahead, particularly when it comes to Republican Senators Ron Johnson, Susan Collins, Bob Corker, Jeff Flake, and John McCain, all of whom have expressed reservations about the bill, one would have thought the incremental step would be cause for celebration. But for Senator Orrin Hatch, the 83-year-old Finance Committee chairman, the excitement was overshadowed by Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, who had the audacity to point out—in public!—that the proposed bill sacrifices low-income earners and the middle class in order to give corporate America, and by extension the 1 percent, a gigantic tax cut. To be clear: everyone knows this. Congress’s nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, which said earlier this week the plan would raise taxes on low-income Americans in just a few short years, knows this. Voters, 61 percent of whom said this week that they believe the G.O.P. plan will benefit the wealthy, know this. But Republicans are still trying to claim that their plan is all about the little guy, so you’ll have to excuse Hatch if he exploded when Brown blew up his spot.

“This bull crap you guys throw out there gets really old after a while,” Hatch told Brown, who had said it would be “nice just tonight to just acknowledge this tax cut is really not for the middle class; it’s for the rich.” The Utah senator then banged his gavel nine times in an attempt to silence Brown, point out that he, Hatch, “came from the lower-middle class originally, so don’t spew that stuff on me.” Hatch also seemingly took issue with the timing of Brown’s critique: “to do it right at the end of this, it’s just not right,” he lamented. He did not suggest an alternative time to discuss the matter of screwing over a large portion of the country, but perhaps someone in his office will check and get back to us.

Trump official: chief executives didn’t understand the question when they were asked if a tax cut would spur investment

Earlier this week, Donald Trump’s National Economic Council director Gary Cohn suffered through yet another humiliating episode in a series of humiliating episodesthat have made up his tenure at the White House. In this case, it was during an appearance at The Wall Street Journal’s annual C.E.O Council, where editor John Bussey asked the executives in the audience to raise their hands if they planned to increase their investments should a corporate tax cut pass—a concept that comprises the centerpiece of the G.O.P.’s argument that their tax plan is a boon for the common man. Unfortunately for Cohn, only a handful of people raised their hands, prompting an awkward, “Why aren’t the other hands up?“ from the former Goldman Sachs president. But when asked on Friday about the fact that the very people whose cooperation is necessary for the plan to maybe work do not appear to be on board, Kevin Hassett, the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, explained that the C.E.O.s were either confused or lying:

He also claimed, as we assume he is contractually obligated to, that tax cuts will pay for themselves. “It’s just not economically rational” to suggest the plans would increase the deficit, he said, even though virtually every analysis has shown the plans doing just that, including a report from the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation, which showed that the House bill would cost $1.98 trillion over the next decade.

Trump gearing up to blame widening trade deficit caused by tax cuts on Mexico

As you’ve probably heard because he constantly brings it up, whether in reference to Mexico or Germany or Japan, Donald Trump is upset about the United States’ trade deficit and will reduce it A.S.A.P., just after he signs a tax bill that would do the opposite. Per The New York Times:

A wide range of experts agree that cutting taxes is likely to increase the trade deficit, which measures the difference between what the United States imports from other countries, like televisions and fruit, and what it exports, like cars and meat. In fact, a larger trade deficit is not a byproduct of the tax plan—it is the heart of the plan. The administration has said its $1.5 trillion tax cut will not balloon the federal budget deficit because the plan will generate enough economic growth to essentially pay for itself. The most optimistic projections of the likely economic benefits of the tax cuts are driven by increased trade deficits. “I do expect a major trade deficit, absolutely, as part of this,” said Laurence J. Kotlikoff, a professor of economics at Boston University who supports the proposed tax cuts and whose analysis of the economic benefits has been cited by the White House. “If this tax plan works, it works because the U.S. becomes more open to trade.”

Kotlikoff also said, “this is a White House that does not know economics,” so, you know, sleep well tonight.

Elsewhere!

Wells Fargo Executive Fired After Complaining About Regulators (W.S.J.)

Tax Talks Advance Without an Analysis of Economic Impact (W.S.J.)

Wall Street Will Be Riding the Boom from Tax Plan, Mnuchin Says (Bloomberg

Oklahoma Tried the G.O.P.’s Tax Plan. Now, It’s Electing Democrats.(New York)

Interior Department Says It Can’t Explain Zinke’s Private Jet Use Because of Obama (The Hive)

How Morgan Stanley Outdid Goldman in Old Commodities Rivalry (Bloomberg)

Bitcoin Adds $41 Billion to Market Cap in 6 Days as It Hits All-Time High of $7,998 (CNBC)

SkyBridge Boss Grouses Over Sale Approval Delay (Reuters)

A French Challenge to Gundlach’s “Disaster” Bond Theory (Bloomberg)

Ohio Supreme Court justice says he’s been intimate with “50 very attractive females,” including one in a hayloft (USA Today