The Senate Judiciary Committee postponed Chad Blanche's Attorney General confirmation vote. Sen. John Cornyn decided the Department of Justice hasn't explained why the President and his friends get to skip IRS audits. A bold stance from a man who works in the building where tax policy goes to die.
Cornyn wants answers about a settlement that shields Trump from tax audits. The same Trump who released his tax returns never and made it a whole thing for years. Now there's a deal on paper that says the IRS will just look the other way. The IRS, famously aggressive when you claim too many miles on your Honda Civic, apparently goes soft when the numbers get big enough.
Blanche's confirmation hinges on explaining this arrangement. A lawyer has to convince senators that a tax audit shield for the President is normal and fine and definitely how republics work. The job interview is going great.
Retail traders will read this headline and think it matters for their SPY calls. They'll check futures. They'll post on Reddit about constitutional crises affecting their $300 portfolio. None of them will notice that the market doesn't care if the Attorney General is confirmed today or next month or never. The VIX is sitting there doing nothing. The dollar is fine. Gold is gold.
Meanwhile some guy in Ohio just got audited for accidentally filing his 1099 twice. He's on hold with the IRS right now. Fourth hour. The hold music is a jazz rendition of America the Beautiful. He has no settlement. He has no Cornyn. He has a payment plan and a lesson about who the rules actually bind.
The vote will happen eventually. Blanche will get confirmed or he won't. The market will move based on rate cuts and earnings and whatever else it was going to do anyway. But at least we postponed something. That's basically governance.
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