Trump advisory councils are disbanded; how will tax reform be affected?
General Motors CEO Mary Barra was pleased earlier this year to have a seat on the Strategy and Policy Forum, a group of corporate leaders formed to advise President Trump on economic issues. The Forum seemed like a good way to get the presidentês ear on issues of interest to the auto industry. But Barra was among the members of the group who were outraged by the presidentês response to the events in Charlottesville when he blamed many sides for the violence, according to the New York Times.
On Wednesday morning, after the presidentês response to reportersê questions in Trump Tower following an event designed to discuss infrastructure, members of the forum voted to disband the group. Then Trump announced that he was abolishing it. Either way, the Forum is no more. It was one more in an extraordinary sequence of events for a president who had boasted about his closeness to the business community.
Republicans in Congress are more anxious than ever to focus on key issues that they and Trump campaigned on: tax reform, infrastructure, and, in some form, health care. Some analysts have questioned whether the divisions in the Republican party laid bare by last weekês events will make it harder to come together on tax reform. Before it can take any action on taxes, Congress will need to come together on a federal budget and act to keep the government running past October 1.
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