Sen. Bob Corker (R. Tn) Sells Out His Tax Cut Vote

Gets a Provision That Favors Him

In the Senate lineup the Republicans have some pretty loathsome folks who lie as a matter of course. They lied in their attempts to gut health insurance for low income people, and they have lied about their tax bill, a huge giveaway for the very wealthy and for large profitable corporations. But nobody has lied like Senator Corker.

The Senator made big headlines by announcing he would not vote for the tax bill if it increased the deficit. It increases the deficit, something like $.14 trillion, yes trillion. So now the Senator will vote for it. Why? Well maybe here's why.

Corker’s vote is considered pivotal in the closely divided Senate and he could be in a position to make or break the landmark legislation. He declared his support for the final reconciled version of the bill on Friday after GOP lawmakers added a provision that could benefit his vast real estate holdings -- a provision that Corker denied having any knowledge of.

That's right, his defense is he didn't know what he was doing.

“I had like a two-page summary I went through with leadership,” said Corker. “I never saw the actual text.” Despite not reading the bill -- and having time to read it before the final vote scheduled for this week -- he reiterated his support for the bill to IBT, support he announced hours before bill’s full text was publicly released on Friday.

So let's summarize. Sen. Corker says he opposes the bill, votes against the Senate version, and after it changes to benefit him personally he changes his vote and then says he doesn't understand the change and didn't read the bill and doesn't know what it means or what is in it but will vote for it anyway.

What a steaming pile of garbage.  Sen. Corker had already announced he was leaving the Senate.  His vote was not needed for passage.  Apparently he just wanted to make a few bucks on the way out.  And yes, he was already very rich.