When the House and Senate touch down in DC, they’ll be exchanging their week of feasting for a steady diet of something else: tax reform. For this debate, Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) chamber will be on the observation deck, having passed its IRS overhaul without much drama two weeks ago. As usual, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) path to success is much thornier, made difficult by Republicans that can’t seem to coalesce even when it counts.

Heading into Thanksgiving, there was no guarantee the Senate GOP had the votes it needed to push its bill to the finish line, where the House and president are waiting. At least a half-dozen Republicans had complaints about the legislation, which leaders hope to address in the mad scramble of the next couple of days. To hold a vote by week’s end, McConnell will have to patch more than a few holes. “I think in the end,” an optimistic Sen. John Thune (R-SD) told reporters, “We’ll get the votes.” Conservatives, who were stung by a summer of health care failures, are less certain. Still, Thune tried to reassure, there are “plenty of opportunities” to change the bill and win over holdouts.

One of those holdouts, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), may be willing to embrace the bill if McConnell followed the House’s lead and tacked on the Free Speech Fairness Act language. Right now, the Senate proposal is silent on the Johnson Amendment, the decades-old portion of the tax code that’s been used by the IRS to crack down on religious groups or leaders who talk openly about policy issues. In a race for votes, The New York Times thinks the issue could be one of conservatives’ key bargaining chips. President Trump has been the amendment’s biggest critic, arguing for two years that it’s time to end the government’s tactics of intimidation. Again at the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump vowed to “totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution.” It will, he said later, “be my greatest contribution to Christianity and other religions.”

The White House showed that it meant business in May, when President Trump issued his executive order on religious liberty. In it, he directed the secretary of the treasury to stop bullying “any individual, house of worship, or other religious organization” for speaking about “moral or political issues from a political perspective.” But, like us, he knows that as important as his order was, it will take congressional action to end Obama’s legacy of conservative targeting.

Meanwhile, McConnell has more to overcome than his uncooperative party. He also has to deal with the misinformation campaign of the Left. During the break, liberals pumped out all sorts of lies about the Senate’s plan, including this whopper: GOP tax reform “hurts the poor.” That was the headline of The Washington Post, which took more than a few liberties with the truth when it decided that ending the individual mandate in Obamacare would translate into a financial loss for low-income Americans.

Heather Long argues that if the government doesn’t force people to buy insurance, most poor people won’t. And if they don’t, she goes on, that means they’ll miss out on the tax credit to pay for it. Yes, but that would be their choice. The Senate bill doesn’t “hurt” them. It gives them the right to make their own decision about health insurance. If lower-income people choose to buy a plan, guess what? They’ll still get the subsidy to do so. To suggest that Republicans are somehow punishing the less fortunate is just another instance of liberals inventing a story to fit their narrative.

If you want to know the truth about how the plan affects the poor, it’s a far cry from the picture the Left is painting. Senate Republicans asked the Joint Committee on Taxation (JTC) to calculate what happens to families across the income spectrum if only the tax impacts of the Senate bill are taken into account (so assuming zero impacts from the individual mandate repeal). The JCT responded with a table (in the same Post article) showing that all income groups — including people earning less than $30,000 — receive a tax cut under the plan. Sure, there are some areas of this proposal that need work. But, as the president tweeted earlier, “The Tax Cut Bill is getting better and better. The end result will be great for ALL!”

Originally published here.

Heartbreak in Any Language

It’s a scene a small Texas community understands with heartbreaking clarity: carpets stained by the blood of innocent worshippers. The grieving families in Sutherland Springs didn’t have much in common with Sufi Muslims 7,200 miles away until last week, when terrorists turned a place of peace into a real-life nightmare of loss and death.

For Egypt, the scene at the Sinai mosque was more like a horror movie, as blankets covered several of the 250 dead — victims of explosions and the shooting rampage that injured 109 more. The ambush, which happened halfway between Cairo and the Israeli border, took many in the country by surprise, since the most recent attacks have been directed at Christians. This time, the target was Sufi Muslims, gunned down in what should be a sacred space.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who spent three hours discussing ways to protect religious minorities with us weeks before this tragedy, took a firm stance in defense of his people. “We will respond to this act with brute force against these terrorists,” he said unflinchingly. “This terrorist act will strengthen our resolve, steadfastness and will to stand up to, resist and battle against terrorism… Egypt is facing terrorism on behalf of the region and the world.”

President Trump echoed his fierce determination, calling on the international community “to strengthen its efforts to defeat terrorist groups that threaten the United States and our partners and we must collectively discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence.” For President Sisi, the warning signs are growing every day. As the U.S. and allied forces pushes ISIS out of Syria and other parts of the Middle East, they’re retreating into Egypt and other parts of Africa. One reason Egypt is becoming a target is because President Sisi’s government is taking a hard line against extremists.

While the Obama administration provided U.S. support to his country before the people overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood-led government, the Trump administration hasn’t restored that support to the Sisi government. That, combined with Jordan’s moderate government and developments in Saudi Arabia, could bring some stability to the Middle East. In these dangerous times, Egypt can do more than be a key ally against ISIS; it could possibly, with U.S. help and input, be a model government for nations in that region. As we discussed last month, it’s important that it not only fight the extremists but protect and promote basic human rights — which, according to the UN Declaration on Human Rights, includes the freedom of religion.

Originally published here.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.