Republican Leaders ‘Confident’ They Have Votes to Pass Tax Bill
“We need to get on board Senator Flake and Senator Corker,” Senator John Cornyn of Texas said on Friday.
If Mr. Moore loses and the seat flips to the Democrats before the tax bill is sent to Mr. Trump’s desk, Republicans would either need
to win over Mr. Corker or Mr. Flake, or to persuade House Republicans to accept the bill passed by the Senate without changes.
2 Senate Republican, said on Friday morning that Republicans had the 50 votes they need to pass the tax bill.
Mr. Cornyn said Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee was not yet on board, and he indicated that Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona was also a holdout.
He said of Mr. Corker, “We haven’t given up, but right now we don’t have him.”
“We’re still talking with Senator Flake, too, but we’re confident of the 50,” Mr. Cornyn said.
To satisfy Mr. Corker, for example, Republicans were discussing putting in place tax increases
that would take effect some years from now, a step that would soften the deficit effects of the legislation.
Mr. Corker and Mr. Flake have pushed to scale back the tax cuts in the Senate bill by as much as one-third, in the wake of a report from the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation
that projected the bill would add $1 trillion to deficits over the course of a decade, even after accounting for economic growth.
• The Senate began debate on the tax bill at 10 a.m. Friday, with Republicans pushing for a final vote later in the day.
Fifty votes would be enough for a victory if Vice President Mike Pence breaks the tie, even if Mr. Corker
and Mr. Flake, two deficit hawks in the party, remain opposed to the bill.