Republicans had great week. Or did they?

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and his fellow Republicans celebrated crossing off a big one from their tax bill to-do list last week: Getting their bill through a key committee. The full House of Representatives could vote on the bill as early as this week. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans unveiled their tax package Thursday.

There was a lot of momentum for Republicans this week on tax reform.But look a little closer and you’ll see that the process was also beset with struggles that underscore some major cracks in their plan.

— Since its release Thursday, there are already enough potential “no” votes to kill the Senate bill.

At least three Senate Republicans have said they would not support a tax plan thatadds too much to the debt.

Three “no” votes is one too many for GOP leaders, who are trying to pass this tax plan in the Senate with only Republicans. They only hold 52 seats in the chamber, which was already an extremely tight margin.

Even if they get a bill through the Senate, GOP leaders will only be halfway done: They still need to square it with the House bill, which has somemajor differences.

— They are losing a public opinion battle about whether their plan helps the middle class.

Half of Americans oppose the plan Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans outlined in September, according to new Washington PostABC News polling. They don’t believe it will help the middle class more than it will help the wealthy.

Independent analysts say Americans are right to be skeptical. The House bill would clearly cut the tax rates for businesses and the wealthy, but for people lower on the income scale, it would provide a mishmash of tax cutsand lost deductions.

— The president is a complicating factor.

Republicans have already hadto publicly disagree with or even ignore Mr. Trump on whether 401(k) plans would be altered how much to cut the corporate tax rate and whether to use this tax plan to also implode Obamacare by repealing the individual mandate.

Mr. Trump also isn’t helping by being off-message. In a call with Senate Democrats this past week to convince themto get on board.

During that call, Mr. Trump also reportedly threw House Republicans’ carefully crafted bill under the bus, telling Senate Democrats they’ll like the their chamber’s version much better.