House Republicans have approved a wildly unpopular tax “reform” bill on Tuesday afternoon that will benefit the wealthy over the middle class. The vote was 227-203.
The bill, which now goes to the Senate, is expected to add $1.4 trillion to the U.S. deficit.
In 2009, when Obama passed the stimulus package to combat the Great Recession, Rs routinely critiqued him for raising the deficit. Now they’re happily adding $1.4Tn to it. My @Morning_Joe chart: pic.twitter.com/RjhsX5trP0
— Steven Rattner (@SteveRattner) December 18, 2017
According to a CNN poll, just 33 percent of Americans approve of the bill while 55 percent oppose it.
Two-thirds see the bill as doing more to benefit the wealthy than the middle class (66%, vs. 27% who say it’ll do more to benefit the middle class) and almost four in 10 (37%) say that if the bill becomes law, their own family will be worse off. That’s grown five points since early November. Just 21% say they’ll be better off if the bill becomes law.
President Donald Trump, the bill’s salesperson-in-chief, lands at an overall 35% approval rating in this poll, his worst mark yet in CNN polling by one point. Trump’s approval ratings continue to be the lowest for any modern president at this point in his presidency. As of December of their first year in office, all first-time elected presidents back to Eisenhower have approval ratings of 49% or higher except for Trump.
