House

Dem lawmaker gives McConnell’s tax reform op-ed a failing grade

A California lawmaker took a red pen to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) Wall Street Journal op-ed on the GOP tax bill, giving it a failing grade.

Rep. Mark Takano (D), a former public high school English teacher for two decades, critiqued McConnell’s piece in a post on his Facebook page.

“I thought we agreed you can’t keep doing this last minute,” Takano wrote at the top of the page next to a circled “F” grade.

Throughout the three-page piece, Takano crossed out sections, underlined phrases and left notes in the margins slamming the substance of the op-ed.

Where McConnell referred to the Senate GOP tax plan as a “good bill,” Takano wrote, “Only 25 percent of Americans agree. What you turned in was a draft at best with notes scribbled in the margins.”

{mosads}Takano ripped McConnell for citing the National Federation of Independent Businesses, writing, “NFIB is Koch-funded. Is there a less biased and partisan source you could cite?”

At the bottom of the last page, Takano recommended that McConnell also visit his “math teacher.”

“When we are done discussing your writing, please see your math teacher,” he wrote. “I fear you are at risk of failing both subjects!”

Takano has used his red pen to critique other past works from GOP lawmakers, such as an op-ed by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) about net neutrality.

The Senate GOP passed its version of the tax plan on Friday after a series of last-minute additions. Democrats slammed the GOP over some of the additions, which were scribbled in the margins of the bill, arguing that they did not have time to read the full legislation.

Lawmakers hope to send a final version of the bill to President Trump by the end of the month.