There’s a mystery afoot on Capitol Hill. Tucked within the Republican megabill President Donald Trump signed on July 4 was a tax provision that surprised most, if not all, of the Republican members of Congress who voted for it. The provision limits the amount gamblers can deduct from their income taxes based on their losses — and nobody seems to know how it got into the bill.
The riddle before us is a reminder that our lawmakers don’t always know all the relevant details of the legislation they’re being pushed to support. It’s also why, if only to save themselves embarrassment, these GOP senators would have done well to resist Trump’s arbitrary demand that they give him a “big, beautiful bill” to sign by the Fourth of…