Within the Senate’s tax bill is a provision to repeal the Obamacare mandate, which is essentially a tax. The bill gained momentum when Republicans realized that this would save them about $350 billion.
Mad Dash to the Finish Line
In the final day and hours before the vote last Saturday, aides were scribbling revisions into the bill in the paper margins. These notes were deciding the fate of billions of dollars. Just prior to the vote, the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation released a report that, even with project economic growth, the bill would add $1 trillion to the deficit.
In the end, this wasn’t enough to scare away all of the GOP’s fiscal hawks. Senator Bob Corker was lone GOP hold out who voted against the bill.