Angus King: There’s a Lot of Stuff in the GOP Tax Bill that Nobody Knows What It’s About

RUSH EXCERPT:
KING: "If that was regular order, I’d hated to see something else. This is the bill. I brought it. This is the bill that we got at about six o’clock at night that we were going to vote on that night. There were no hearings. There were some general hearings about tax reform. There were zero hearings on the bill. And—and even the bill that was reported out by the finance committee was different than what we were handed that we had to vote on a few hours later. And what worries me about this, I’d— I commandeered a staffer’s desk right off the floor Friday night and read it all the way through. Now, I can’t say I understood all of it, but you could do the things that we were talking about, reducing corporate tax rates, doubling the standard deduction in maybe fifty pages. This is four hundred and seventy-seven pages, John. There’s a lot of stuff in here that I don’t think anybody knows what it’s all about. I just happen to pick up. I marked in the margin on page four-oh-nine, “domestic royal and gas extraction income.” What’s that all about? There is a later provision about income on oil and gas from foreign countries, what’s that all about? The point is nobody knew what was going on here and there was a moment when we could have fixed it. Chuck Schumer moved to— to recess Friday night about nine o’ clock until Monday, give people a chance to go through this and dig through it. Party line vote, denied. We end up voting at 3:00 AM."