September 12, 2017
Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey is one of a handful of politicians set to talk tax reform with President Donald Trump over dinner on Tuesday night.
Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are set to host five other senators as part of the "bipartisan working dinner," which includes Democratic Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, along with two other Republicans aside from Toomey, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, The Washington Post first reported.
Toomey confirmed the meeting on Bloomberg TV on Tuesday morning.
"I think we are gradually coalescing toward a consensus about what this tax reform is going to look like and then the world will see a series of milestones along the way, legislatively, to determine whether or not we're actually getting the job done," he told the news outlet Tuesday. "I'm pretty optimistic; I think we're going to get a really good pro-growth tax reform bill done."
Trump is attempting to put pressure on Democrats to support a GOP-led rewrite of the tax code during Tuesday's dinner, CNBC reported. The dinner comes a week after Trump struck a surprising deal with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on a debt ceiling package, a move that defied his own party's wishes.
A spokesperson for Toomey did not respond to an immediate request for comment regarding further details on the dinner.
