The Tax Men Cometh: Republicans in the House and Senate have reached a reconciliation agreement merging their two bills to cut taxes for both business and individual payers. They hope to pass it and have it on President Trump’s desk for signing before Christmas.

They are not likely to wait for Alabama’s newly-elected Democrat Doug Jones to be seated in the Senate later this month or early in January.

The winners appear to be big companies and the wealthy. The bill sets the corporate tax rate at 21 percent, down from 35, and the top rate for wealthy people at 37 percent, down from 39.6. The restructuring curtails deductions for state and local taxes, which will raise overall taxes for some payers.

The bill also preserves the alternative minimum tax, a tax once aimed at the wealthy that now hits the upper middle class because it was never indexed for inflation.

President Trump claims the Democrats like the bill, even though they won’t vote for it. “They like it a lot. And they cannot say it,” the president claimed.

FBI Texts: Text messages critical of Donald Trump between a top FBI investigator and a senior FBI lawyer during the 2016 campaign have been released, to the embarrassment of the FBI

Republicans claim the texts show bias in favor of Hillary Clinton in the email investigation, and against Donald Trump in the Russia influencing probe.

The messages between Peter Strzok and colleague Lisa Page were decidedly anti-Trump. Page wrote in one message, “This man cannot be president.” In Strzok wrote, “I’m scared for our organization,” and referred to Trump as a “douche.”

During the campaign, Strzok led the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server while she was secretary of state, and he was a lead investigator in the Russia matter until he was dismissed because of these texts.

Republican legislators claim these messages are evidence of bias in the investigations, but there’s no proof as yet that these personal opinions were acted upon.

You’re Fired: The abrasive former contestant on Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice,” Omarosa Manigault, was fired from the White House staff Tuesday night after what’s been described as a nasty confrontation with Chief of Staff John Kelly.

What it got down to was that, despite being paid $180,000 a year and having a huge notion of her importance, Manigault had no clear job description. She used to have “walk-in” privileges to the Oval Office until she was curtailed by Chief of Staff John Kelly.

It didn’t help that she brought her 39-member wedding party unannounced to the White House for a photo shoot.

Reporter April Ryan of Urban Radio Networks says Manigault demanded to speak to the president and Kelly told her, “This is not like going to the principal’s office. It’s done.” Ryan says Manigault spewed a string of expletives, which didn’t sway Kelly. He was a Marine.

Ryan says Manigault later tried to get to the White House residence, setting off alarms, before she was escorted out of the compound.

His Truth is Marching On: Vanquished Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore still refuses to concede the election. Overnight he issued a video statement saying, “We are indeed in a struggle to preserve our republic, our civilization, and our religion.”

The Weinstein Effect: The Public Broadcasting System suspended Tavis Smiley following accusations of sexual impropriety against the 53-year-old host. Variety reported that Smiley had sexual relations with a number of subordinates.

It’s impossible to keep up with the daily revelations and the fall of public figures accused of sexual harassment and rape. Music Mogul Russell Simmons of Def Jam records has been accused by four women, three of whom say he raped them.

The 60-year-old Simmons issued a statement saying, “These horrific accusations have shocked me to my core and all of my relations have been consensual.”

In Kentucky, Republican lawmaker Dan Johnson, 57, stopped his car on a bridge and shot himself to death last night. He had denied an accusation that he sexually assaulted a teenage girl in the basement of his home.

And while we’re at it, actress Salma Hayek wrote an opinion piece for the NY Times in which she described movie maker Harvey Weinstein as “my monster.”

Happy to have gotten a jump on her career through Weinstein, Hayek says, “Little did I know it would become my turn to say no.” She goes on;

“No to letting him watch me take a shower.

No to letting him give me a massage.

No to letting a naked friend of his give me a massage.

No to letting him give me oral sex.”

And she says, “The range of his persuasion tactics went from sweet-talking me to that one time when, in an attack of fury, he said the terrifying words, ‘I will kill you, don’t think I can’t.’”

Political Successor: Minnesota Lt. Gov. Tina Smith has been named to fill the seat left by Al Franken, as soon as he resigns from the Senate. She would serve until January 2019, unless she wins a special election and fills the job until 2020.

Political Genius: President Trump is so brilliant he’s right even when he’s wrong. Just ask him. Trump first backed temporary Sen. Luther Strange in the Alabama senatorial primary, which was won by Roy Moore. Then Trump backed Moore, who lost to a Democrat, a big shock.

But Trump tweeted, “The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right!”

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