Schumer chides distracted Republicans on Senate floor during tax vote: ‘You’re messing up America’

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) interrupted his floor speech during the Senate’s vote on the GOP tax bill early Wednesday to admonish Republicans in the chamber for speaking during his speech.

“Can we have order, Mr. President?” Schumer said to the presiding senator, Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).

“This is serious stuff. We believe you’re messing up America. You could pay attention for a couple of minutes,” Schumer added.

Schumer used his speech to blast the GOP tax bill, saying the bill would lead to a “hefty windfall for the wealthy and only [a] paltry temporary leap for some in the middle class” and labeling the bill as a “disgrace.”

{mosads}The New York Democrat also reiterated his vow that Republicans would “rue the day” they passed the bill.

House Republicans passed the final version of the GOP tax bill on Tuesday, and the Senate is expected to follow suit early Wednesday following hours of debate.

The bill lowers the top individual tax rate from 39.6 percent to 37 percent and slashes the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.

It also increases the exemption amounts for the individual alternative minimum tax and the estate tax, and eliminates the ObamaCare individual mandate.

The House will have to vote again on the bill Wednesday after the Senate parliamentarian ruled that three provisions in the bill violated Senate rules for budget reconciliation.