Trump is putting Republican leadership on the spot on tax reform: Varney

The president is holding a White House dinner tonight. He's invited three Democrats and three Republicans -- all ‘moderates.’ The theory is: move to the center to get tax cuts.

By the way, the three Democrats are from states that voted heavily for candidate Trump, and they are up for re-election next year: Joe Donnelly (Indiana), Heidi Heitkamp (North Dakota) and Joe Manchin (West Virginia). This is bi-partisan outreach.

President Trump travels to a dozen states in the next few weeks, pushing hard for tax cuts. We don't know which states yet, but surely he will go to the states that he won in the election, but that are now represented by Democrats who are up for re-election.

Let’s be clear, the president will get very little support for real tax cuts from Sen. Schumer or Former Speaker Pelosi -- the Democrats' leadership is stuck in tax-hike country.

But the moderates, they are a different story. The president proposes a middle-class tax cut, not a bonanza for upper income people. He wants a big stimulus for small businesses.

Some Democrats would be attracted to that. After all, they lost the election because they lost the middle class vote!

It’s not the tax cut agenda that conservatives dreamed of - they don't have the votes. It’s political reality.

The president is putting the Republican leadership on the spot, they have so far failed to deliver. So, he's turning to the center. He will take what he can get, and if middle America wins one, we all win.