Senate Republicans have employed all sorts of gimmicks to keep the price tag of their $1.5 trillion tax giveaway to the rich low enough to pass with a simple majority vote. One of the ways they’ve done that is by turning certain provisions on and off in order to deflate the overall cost of a plan that, if those provisions remained steady, would cost closer to $1.9 trillion. Republicans once obsessed with decreasing the deficit are now trying to square their potential vote for a bill they know will balloon both deficits and the overall debt. Politico writes:
“There are several of us that are trying to figure out a way to make sure this doesn’t hurt us relative to deficits,” [Sen. Bob Corker] said Thursday. “We’re looking globally at the whole thing and trying to do what we can to make it more fiscally palatable.”
Added Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.): “It’s a concern — it’s one thing I’m working on.” [...]
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson has already said he won’t vote for the bill because it helps corporations while leaving small businesses behind.
But it will be fascinating to see whether Republicans who have rooted their career in a measure of fiscal responsibility will now bow to the pressure to vote for a bill that is anything but responsible. The notion that they’re trying to make the plan more “fiscally palatable” doesn’t bode well for the prospect of them actually voting on principle.