Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Friday that he believes the Republicans have the votes to pass the Senate tax plan.
As the Senate neared a momentous vote on the sweeping Republican tax bill, Democrats mocked the nearly 500-page printed text of the legislation — complaining it was given to them at the last minute before the vote.
And it had illegible, hand-written notes in the margins, they protested.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts tweeted, "No, I haven't had time to read the 500-page #GOPTaxScam bill that we're voting on tonight," with a photo of her reading aloud from pages at her desk. "Couldn't read it if I tried — and I did."
The bill is "removed from the reality of what the American people need," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. He also criticized Republicans for releasing a lengthy, revised version of the bill shortly before the final vote, saying, "The Senate is descending to a new low of chicanery."
Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana said "one page literally has hand-scribbled policy changes on it that can't be read. This is Washington, D.C. at its worst. Montanans deserve so much better."
Republican leaders engaged in eleventh-hour negotiations with GOP holdout senators to meet their demands and secure their support for the bill that's a political imperative for Trump and the party. They had rounds of closed-door meetings and were drafting the revised bill text up to the time they assembled on the Senate floor in advance of the vote.
