Trump's Win Poised To Empower Oklahoma Lawmakers, Pave Way For Tax Reform

The ramifications of Donald Trump's re-election, for the country, won't be clear until he's in office and has had some time to govern. But the ramifications for Congress and specifically for Oklahoma's delegation are already taking shape.

At the macro level, Trump's win won't change Washington, the political town where people and interests in the interest of survival, tend to be fickle. But at the micro level, in the caucuses and on the committees where policy and legislation live or die, the win is big.

"This is a magnificent victory for the American people," President-elect Trump told a cheering crowd of supporters early Wednesday morning.

Donald Trump turning his electoral college win into the winning policies he has promised the nation will depend, in large part, on Congress.

"He's going to need strong support in Congress to get his agenda through, " Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK4) said in an interview Tuesday night.

Congressman Cole says perhaps the biggest obstacle has already been overcome: putting the Democrats in the minority in the Senate, where Cole says many good conservative bills this session have gone to die.

"We produced, I think, the best border bill ever written. We just couldn't get it through the Senate--we got it through the House," Cole said. "We produced a great energy bill; couldn't get it through a Democratic Senate."

Although there are still too many races yet to be called, it's looking increasingly likely that the House, where Republicans currently own a very slim majority, will stay under GOP control.

That would allow Trump to operate with a unified government, just as he did the first two years of his first term and would potentially clear the way for progress on key issues -- none more important, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) believes, than taxes.

"The tax policy we currently have expires in December of 2025," Lankford explained in a live phone interview Wednesday morning, "so the biggest issue we will face next year will be how to be able to redo taxes -- that every single American’s tax rate will go up, every small business tax rate will go up, if we don’t act next year."

While Trump's win certainly will empower the Oklahoma delegation, there is some work that will have to be done before Trump and the new Congress are sworn in.

"Our appropriations bills need to come together and get those passed before December 20th," Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK5) said in an interview Tuesday night. "That's when the current continuing resolution ends, and that's going to be the priority."

In addition, Congresswoman Bice says, the National Defense Authorization Act and yet another Farm Bill extension will have to be approved before January.