BREAKING: House Passes GOP Tax Bill

One down, one to go.

The House has passed the Republican tax bill by a vote of 227-203. The Senate is expected to follow suit on Tuesday evening.

Americans are highly skeptical of the House-passed legislation. A CNN poll out Tuesday says that 55 percent of respondents are opposed to the GOP tax plan, while 33 percent are in favor.

The main criticism lobbed at the bill is that it favors the wealthy more than — and perhaps even at the expense of — the middle class.

“Hard-working families see right through the brazen con job that Republicans are trying to sell them,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in a Floor speech prior to the vote. “Why aren’t our Republican colleagues standing with their constituents? Why aren’t they joining us insisting on a better deal for American families?”

At a press conference before the vote, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said that he had “no concerns whatsoever” about passing such an unpopular piece of legislation. He attributed the bill’s dire polling to the punditry’s opposition.

“When you have a slingfest, a mudfest on TV, when pundits are slamming each other about this tax bill before it passes, that’s what’s going to happen,” Ryan said. “But when we get this done, when people see their withholding improving, when they see the jobs occurring, when they see bigger paychecks, a fairer tax system, a simpler tax code, that’s what’s going to produce the results. Results are going to make this popular.”

The bill now heads to the Senate, where it expected to pass sometime Tuesday night, and will then likely hit President Donald Trump‘s desk on Wednesday.

[image via screengrab]

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