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Article snippet: Congressional Republicans are feeling enormous pressure to deliver a win on tax reform before Christmas Day. After a humiliating defeat on ObamaCare repeal, GOP leaders are desperate for their first major legislative victory of 2017 and are doubling down on their ambitious timeline to overhaul the U.S. tax code. Speaker MORE (R-Wis.) reiterated this week that House Republicans will pass their tax bill out of their chamber before the Thanksgiving recess kicks off on Nov. 16. If both chambers can pull it off, it would give House and Senate tax negotiators several weeks to work out their differences and put a bill on President Trump’s desk by Christmas. Leaders, however, are under no illusions about how difficult this will be. Republicans said they’re already being bombarded by an onslaught of lobbyists and special-interest groups hellbent on protecting their favored tax breaks. This week’s narrow 216-212 budget vote also underscored the pitfalls ahead for the tax push. Nearly a dozen Republicans from New York and New Jersey opposed the budget over objections that the tax plan calls for scrapping the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, which would force taxpayers in those districts to pay more. And Republicans are already behind schedule. A memo that GOP leadership had been circulating to K Street last month, titled “Optimistic Timeframe for 2017 Enactment of Tax Reform,” showed the House Ways and Means Committee marking up their tax bill on Oct. 30. This week, W... Link to the full article to read more