On Wednesday, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) responded to the Congressional Budget Office’s recent budget outlook with, what could become, regret for his role in passing tax cuts.
“If it ends up costing what has been laid out here, it could well be one of the worst votes I’ve made,” Corker told The Hill.
Corker was opposed to Republicans’ earliest tax cut proposals and in fact voted against one of the measures because of the deficits they were estimated to add, but ended up voting for the tax cuts that became law in December.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) expressed similar regret but about the recently-passed appropriations bill.
“I hope it gets legs,” Kennedy said of an effort by Republican leadership to use certain provisions of the Congressional Budget Act allowing them to cancel some of the spending authorized in the recent spending bill.
“I’m embarrassed about the bill we passed,” he said.
Kennedy voted against the appropriations bill, but many of his fellow Republicans undoubtedly had the same reservations about increasing spending and still voted for it because of its military funding or for whatever other reason.
Corker’s and Kennedy’s comments demonstrate how significantly fiscal issues are contributing to intra-party tension for Republicans, as members are forced to compromise certain of their own priorities with certain of their others for the sake of getting something passed.
With the statistically high possibility of Republicans losing their House majority in November, the prospects of significant conservative reforms coming in President Trump’s last two years are looking grim.
@jeremywbeaman is a contributing writer for Yellowhammer News
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