Republicans may have passed a sweeping tax bill, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is bullish about Democrats’ prospects in 2018.
Schumer says the unpopularity of Republicans’ once-in-a-generation tax overhaul, which he said tilts heavily toward corporations, isn’t going away.
“The only major thing they can point to is the tax bill and even on that bill the public doesn’t like it,” the New York Democrat said. “I believe it will be an anchor around the ankles of every Republican who voted for it.”
Schumer said Republicans should be worried, and pointed to Democrats’ election victories in Virginia, New Jersey, and Alabama.
“The political problems they’re having now are only going to get worse,” Schumer said. “People are standing up and rejecting the Republican agenda across the country including in states that have been ruby red for years.”
“We’re seeing an incredible swing away from Republicans and toward the Democrats from one end of the country to the other,” he added. “If Republicans continue to hurt the middle class, if they continue to kowtow to the powerful corporations and the wealthy, then they’re in for a reckoning next November.”
Democrats’ historic upset in Alabama improved their chances of flipping control of the Senate, but the math is still tricky. Ten of the Senate Democrats up for re-election next cycle are in states Trump won. They will have to hold all of them and win two Republican-held seats. Some of their best pickup options are in Arizona and Nevada.
The House landscape is much more favorable. Democrats are plus-13 on a generic ballot for 2018, according to RealClearPolitics. CNN put Democrats up 18 points on a generic ballot. They only need to be up roughly eight points to have a shot at capturing the House. Still, November is 11 months away.
Asked if Democrats would try to repeal the GOP tax overhaul if they gained control, Schumer said an overhaul was likely.
“There are probably a small number of provisions we might not repeal but it certainly would need drastic overhaul, aiming it at the middle class and not the wealthy and powerful,” Schumer said.
Pressed on what parts Democrats like, Schumer said “very few.”
“I would just say this even the parts we like aren’t good enough — child tax credit, measly,” he said. “We proposed a bigger one. We wouldn’t repeal what they did; we’d try to make it better.”
