WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) issued the following statement regarding the Republican tax bill being voted on in the Senate tonight.
"Throughout the past months, I've urged my Republican colleagues to work across the aisle on a bipartisan tax reform bill that Senators from both parties could get behind. Last week, I joined more than a dozen Democratic Senators to ask our Republican colleagues to slow this process down and work together.
"Finally, over the last few days, I've been working with a handful of my Republican and Democratic colleagues to try to find a way - any way - to stop this backroom, partisan process and force both parties to work together on tax reform. We got close to an agreement, but ultimately didn't succeed.
"The bill that appears likely to pass the Senate soon is a bad one. There's no sugar coating it. This bill gives away tens of billions in corporate tax cuts with no strings attached, hurts the middle class over the long run, guts the Affordable Care Act, and adds more than $1 trillion to the national debt. It was written with no meaningful consultation between the two parties, and it is highly unpopular with the American public.
"This process isn't finished yet, as the Senate and House bills remain very different, but I am very concerned that we're close to making our already-broken tax code even worse. As always, I remain willing to work across the aisle to pass a real, bipartisan tax reform bill for the middle class, but our opportunity to do that is quickly slipping away."