Finance

The final tax bill Democrats got from Republicans is covered in handwritten notes — and senators are complaining it’s unreadable

mitch mcconnell signingWin McNamee/Getty Images

  • Senate Republicans sent the final version of their massive tax bill to Democrats on Friday.
  • Democrats are complaining because the bill has handwritten notes in the margins and is unsearchable.
  • A final vote on the bill is expected late Friday.


Senate Republicans finally gave the final version of their massive tax bill to Democrats on Friday, complete with handwritten notes for last-minute changes and additions.

The final text of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was delivered to Democrats on Friday just hours before an expected final vote on the bill. But Democratic lawmakers said it was nearly unreadable, with handwritten notes in the margin outlining some of the tweaks.

Democrats also noted that the bill is more than 400 pages long, saying they only have a few hours to digest the entirely of the bill before voting on it.

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin tweeted a screenshot of one of the pages with a long, handwritten note in the margin.

Trying to review the #GOPTaxScam but they are making hand-written changes to brand new text as we speak – can anyone else read this?” Durbin tweeted.

Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts shared the same scribbled pages and attacked the state of the bill.

“The entire U.S. tax code is being rewritten at 6:30pm on a Friday in crayon #GOPTaxScam.” he tweeted.

“Any handwriting experts out there? I’d like to know what this says before they call for a vote,” tweeted Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. “This is absurd.”

Matt House, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, expressed similar sentiments.

“They ran out of napkins to write the bill on, apparently,” he tweeted.

Here is a sample of the handwritten notes in the bill, provided to Business Insider:

Senate bill sampleBob Bryan/Business Insider

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