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The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation ruled that the tax plan Republicans had hoped to move swiftly through the Senate would add $1 trillion to the deficit even after accounting for the positive impact from economic growth. The announcement helped halt progress on the tax effort and presented a stark challenge to a core tenet of the Republican Party’s economic philosophy. Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), who has helped shape the tax effort, declared on the Senate floor the same day, “If this legislation is signed into law, we are going to have a smaller deficit in future years than we are on a path to have now.” His was only the latest comment from a prominent Republican spelling out a faith in tax cuts not adding to the deficit. “The plan will pay for itself with growth,” President Trump’s treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, said this spring about Republicans’ emerging tax plan. “Faster economic growth helps raise the economy, which raises revenue. And...

The White House has developed a plan to force out Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, whose relationship with President Trump has been strained, and replace him with Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director, perhaps within the next several weeks, senior administration officials said on Thursday. Mr. Pompeo would be replaced at the C.I.A. by Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas who has been a key ally of the president on national security matters, according to the White House plan. Mr. Cotton has signalled that he would accept the job if offered, said the officials, who insisted on anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations before decisions are announced. It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Trump has given final approval to the plan, but he has been said to have soured on Mr. Tillerson and in general is ready to make a change at the State Department. Mr. Tillerson was at the White House on Thursday morning, although he was not listed on ...