Maybe John will be stupid enough to save the day

So what's going on here is Bob Corker wants to write in some emergency backstop "triggers" to the Senate version of the tax bill. You know, just in case the tax cuts for billionaires don't magically pay for themselves for the first time in the history of this long running scam idea.

Corker, an outspoken critic of the administration who recently announced he is not running for re-election, is not the only Republican pushing for this “backstop.”

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) also called for the measure in a press conference Monday.
“What if we don’t get 0.4 percent growth?” he asked, citing the number touted by GOP leadership as resulting directly from tax cuts. “Do we have realistic numbers and is there a backstop in the process just in case we don’t? We should build in the ‘What if?’ What if this doesn’t work? What changes might be needed in the tax code in the days ahead to be able to adjust in what scenario?”

Both Lankford and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) have pointed to the fiscal disaster in Kansas that resulted from a slew of massive tax cuts as a cautionary tale that should not be repeated on the federal level.

If we take Corker (and maybe one or two of these other guys) at his word, then that might mean failure to include at least some of these "triggers" could end up sinking the bill entirely.  And yet looking around the Finance Committee we find plenty of Senators stupid enough to blow it off. Like this guy here. 

Still, most GOP lawmakers insist, without citing their sources, that the tax bill won’t increase the deficit at all, let alone by more than $1 trillion.

“It will pay for itself,” declared Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA). “I would not vote for this bill if I thought it was going to increase the deficit.”

“Now, it might in the short term,” Kennedy allowed. “But in the medium term and the long term, I think it will pay for itself.”

In the "medium term" John might be out and running for Governor anyway so what does he care. But in the short term, if he's dumb enough to make Corker mad, maybe he's making this thing that much more difficult to pass.

Or maybe this is all wishful thinking.  In the long term, all any of these guys care about is giving big tax cuts to rich people. What are the chances that they fail at that again?