The slim-held Senate GOP majority is running out of time to pass legislation under budget reconciliation before the end of the month, and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D. came out of her meeting with President Donald Trump this week pessimistic anything will happen.
"There is a promise that we will see [a bill] by the 25th of September – I'd be surprised," Sen. Heitkamp told Sunday's "The Cats Roundtable" on 970 AM-N.Y. "Some of the intel we're getting out of that Republican meeting is that they're having a hard time coming to agreement on things."
Under budget reconciliation, the Senate can pass legislation with a simple majority of 50 votes with the Republicans holding a 52-48 edge, but that effort failed on healthcare this summer and President Trump was forced to reach out to Democrats this week to potentially work a deal, if not on repealing Obamacare, than at least tax reform.
But, Sen. Heitkamp told host John Catsimatidis, the stalemated GOP just cannot agree on what a tax reform bill should look like.
"The president realizes that the best policy comes from bipartisan discussions," Sen. Heitkamp said. "[We] really spent a lot of time visiting about what our expectations were for tax reform, trying to figure out where the sweet spot is."
President Trump needs a big legislative victory amid criticism of his administration's inaction and it likely will have to come with the help of Senate Democrats. It makes it more likely the Democrats will wind up having a say in how tax reform is presented before the end of this year.
"One of the things that all three of the Democrats [who met with President Trump] impressed on the administration is that this has to be a middle-class tax cut," Heitkamp said. "This cannot be a tax cut for the wealthiest among us. We are excited about that commitment.
". . . Bipartisanship can work as long as you have a relationship and respect for varying opinions and you are willing to listen."
Needing a hook for a deal with Democrats, President Trump might be able to parlay his big spending hopes on infrastructure as a catalyst for tax reform.
"We also talked about infrastructure," Heitkamp said. "Being from New York, the president has seen infrastructure needs and is very serious about doing more with infrastructure."