Senate delays tax bill vote as setback hits in final hours

CNBC ^ | November 30th, 20-17 | Jacob Pramuk

[Mariner]

Senate Republicans have delayed voting on their tax bill as a setback forced them to patch up the plan only hours before a planned final vote.

Senators will rework the legislation Thursday night with the next in a series of roll call votes set for 11 a.m. on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. Republicans previously hoped they could pass a plan by late Thursday or early Friday.

A hiccup earlier Thursday left the GOP scrambling to tweak its bill and win over skeptical senators. The delay does not necessarily mean Republicans will lack the votes to pass the legislation on Friday.

It does, however, add more uncertainty to Republicans' push to overhaul the American tax system by the end of the year.

The Senate parliamentarian ruled Thursday that a fiscal "trigger," important to winning deficit-wary Sen. Bob Corker's support for the GOP plan, will not work under Senate rules. Republican senators are now looking to find new ways to address the concerns of Corker, a so-called deficit hawk Republican from Tennessee.

"It doesn't look like the trigger is going to work, according to the parliamentarian," Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters, according to Politico. "So we have an alternative, frankly: a tax increase we don't want to do to try to address Sen. Corker's concerns."

[SkyPilot]

A tax cut for the corporations and have the middle class “pay for it.” That’s what this bill is.