Republicans continue to grapple with their dual tax plans in the House and Senate, with the latest controversies swirling around an adoption tax credit and a possible tax increase for some members of the middle class.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Friday he “misspoke” when he earlier said he could guarantee a middle-class tax cut.

[lz_ndn video=33242574]

Now, McConnell says, the Senate tax plan and the final plan may not deliver to a constituency that President Donald Trump considers vital to his 2020 re-election.

“You can’t guarantee that absolutely no one sees a tax increase, but what we are doing is targeting levels of income and looking at the average in those levels, and the average will be tax relief for the average taxpayer in each of those segments,” McConnell told The New York Times.

Tax reform is a must-pass legislative priority for Republicans, especially after their failure to repeal Obamacare, aka the Affordable Care Act, over the summer.

For Republicans, it was yet another instance of fumbles and bumbles made last week as both the House and Senate released long-awaited tax reform plans.

Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes made by the House Republican leadership was releasing a tax plan that cut tax credits for adoption. The tax credit meant a lot to pro-life conservatives, who believe adoption is a loving alternative to abortion.

After the House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) released the tax reform bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, on Tuesday, the furor over the removal of the credit was felt quickly and throughout Washington, D.C.

Critics noted the tax credit only costs $251 million annually. It is worth up to $13,570 for qualified adoption expenses such as lawyers’ fees, according to USA Today, and it is used by nearly 64,000 U.S. families.

Who do you think would win the Presidency?

By completing the poll, you agree to receive emails from LifeZette, occasional offers from our partners and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and legal statement.

“There are children who have no families. What’s more important than that?” said Mary Boo, executive director of the North American Council on Adoptable Children, speaking to CNN last week. “We’ve talked to thousands of families who could not have adopted without that credit. We know it’s important.”

Advocates also quickly launched the Save the Adoption Tax Credit website.

And conservatives on social media lashed out at Republican Establishment politicians whom they thought had lost touch.

“Getting loads of angry emails from foster and adopting parents,” tweeted Erick Erickson, the editor of The Resurgent and a Never-Trump conservative. “The GOP has a real problem on its hands with tax reform.”

To twist the knife in, conservatives on social media noted that Planned Parenthood, the abortion provider, would not lose funding under the Republican-led Congress.

For two days, the controversy cooked. Then the Senate tax plan announced on Thursday did not touch the credit, while Brady added the credit back in to the House plan the same day.

But McConnell’s problem on guaranteeing a tax cut to the middle class is perhaps a much bigger problem. While the Senate majority leader said it is impossible to guarantee that everyone in the middle class will get a tax cut, he opened up the Republicans to criticisms that their plans to cut top rates for the rich and corporations will come on the backs of families earning under $100,000 annually.

Pundits warn that the Republican Party has to deliver a big win on tax reform, hopefully by Christmas, one that the middle class will see as both a tax cut and a stimulus for job creators.

The Senate plan indicates the cut in the top corporate tax rate will drop from 35 to 20 percent, but in 2019, not next year. Such details in the tax plan have policy experts wondering if the GOP can deliver an attractive win to all constituencies, one in time for the 2018 elections.

“The stock market has already reacted badly to the proposal to defer the corporate tax cut,” said Robert Kaufman, a professor of public policy at Pepperdine University. “Plus, the political consequences could be catastrophic. The Senate’s inability to repeal Obamacare has already delivered a solid blow to Republican fortunes. The party needs a significant domestic win to salvage its chances to at least hold its own in the midterm elections.”