Dems rip GOP over handwritten changes to tax plan

Senate Democrats on Friday ripped Republicans for making last-minute handwritten changes to a version of their tax-reform legislation mere hours before the chamber is expected to vote on it. 

“They are scribbling changes in the margins. What could possibly go wrong,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) tweeted, with a photo showing a column of scribbled notes next to a section of the lengthy bill.

{mosads}

The version of the bill Democrats are criticizing does not include a final GOP amendment that hasn’t been filed yet.

“Trying to review the #GOPTaxScam but they are making hand-written changes to brand new text as we speak – can anyone else read this?” tweeted Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), sharing the same page of the law.

Durbin also criticized the process on the Senate floor, saying the GOP wrote out the bill “in longhand” and provided an illegible “work product” to lobbyists before handing it over to the senators voting on it.

They are scribbling changes in the margins. What could possibly go wrong. https://t.co/dXtHjc1JDm

— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) December 1, 2017 

Trying to review the #GOPTaxScam but they are making hand-written changes to brand new text as we speak – can anyone else read this? pic.twitter.com/JX8v1v4gyi

— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) December 1, 2017

Multiple senators criticized the GOP for making handwritten changes, including Sens. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Jon Tester (D-Mon.). House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also joined the criticism.

To all the students who are about to lose their deductions, have you ever turned in a paper with handwritten edits in the margin? What was the grade? https://t.co/AV88cN1Fcf

— Senator Bob Casey (@SenBobCasey) December 1, 2017

So much for regular order! Oh yeah sure, we’ll have plenty of time to read the final GOP tax bill – if you can make out the scribbled handwriting snuck into this massive, unsearchable PDF. #GOPTaxScam pic.twitter.com/a64mNovvHQ

— Senator Bob Menendez (@SenatorMenendez) December 1, 2017

I was just handed a 479-page tax bill a few hours before the vote. 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. pic.twitter.com/q6lTpXoXS0

— Senator Jon Tester (@SenatorTester) December 1, 2017

.@SenateMajLdr, if you are so intent on forcing middle class families to foot the bill so your donors can have a tax break, at least have the decency to find a printer. #GOPTaxScam pic.twitter.com/qFkfaru6ml

— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) December 1, 2017

The Senate is expected to vote on the sweeping legislation late Friday, following a day of negotiations among Republicans, almost all of whom need to vote for the bill for it to pass.

The legislation, if passed, would be the largest tax reform in the U.S. in three decades, marking a historic victory for the Republican Congress and the Trump administration.