Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn expressed confidence Wednesday in Republicans’ efforts to pass their tax plan, making a distinction between the current GOP legislation and their failed health care effort earlier this year.
“In this case, I do believe all (Republicans who have raised concerns) want to get to yes,” the Texas Republican told CNN’s “New Day” Wednesday morning. “They have legitimate concerns, and we’re trying to get to address those concerns, and I think we passed a big hurdle yesterday … (by passing it) in the budget committee.”
The full Senate will vote on whether to take up and start debate on the tax bill Wednesday, setting up a final vote, which Republican leaders hope will be by the end of this week.
Cornyn said the bill will have to pass by “razor-thin margins” because of Democrats’ refusal to work with the GOP.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told “New Day” earlier Wednesday that Democrats are being kept out of the bill’s crafting process as it’s being “written in a back room” by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and special interest groups.
“That’s just not true,” Cornyn refuted. “Sherrod Brown is on the committee with me, and he did not win a lot of his amendments, but when you are in the minority, that happens, and that’s not when you take your ball and go home and that’s what they did. There’s still an opportunity for the Democratic colleagues on the vote for today and on Thursday to participate, and we would love to have a bipartisan bill.”
Cornyn also said the bill wouldn’t revolve around a “trickle down” effect into the middle class, despite that explanation of the tax bill by critics.
“(W)hen you call something ‘trickle down,’ that’s a pejorative phrase designed to cynically look at what we are trying to do here,” he said. “What we are trying to do and we will continue to work to improve it is to make the bill as good as it can be. If the Democrats would join us in the process it could be even better but they have simply refused. So we have to do the best we can, given the hand we have been dealt.”