A handful of Republican senators ultimately voted to pass the Senate tax bill because they received assurances, promises and handshakes from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the White House, but House Republicans have no intention of honoring those promises.
I'm sure we all knew this was coming, but House Republicans are making it clear that they don't care what deals McConnell brokered at the last minute.
“We still have the same issues. Nothing has changed in the last two months just because we’re fulfilling our promise on delivering on tax reform,” Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.), the chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, told The Daily Beast. “I find it problematic to be promising something that the House has shunned from very early on.” [...]
“I think this is exactly what the American people are sick of: learning about trading votes to modify the healthcare system and one fifth of the economy in exchange for a tax vote,” Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA), a member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, told The Daily Beast. “So it seems like it would be wiser for Republicans to actually follow what is in the Republican platform and not what is in the Democratic platform.”
Senator Susan Collins was promised a vote on the Alexander-Murray bill for stabilizing health insurance markets, but that's not going to happen.
Senator Jeff Flake was promised a vote to codify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program into law, but that's probably not going to happen either although it is more likely than passing Alexander-Murray.
These senators had to know there was virtually no chance these promises would be met. If they truly believed they would receive what they asked for, they're dumber than I would have guessed.