THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Almost as small as Donald Trump's hands and other things. Having passed the Republican Tax Disaster in the House, it is now up to the Senate to draft and pass their version of the bill before going to reconciliation. The vote is epected to be along party lines which gives the GOP a margin of 2 Senators. As no Democrats are planning to vote yes the votes ofa few Senators with reservations is now the focus of all concerned.

Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, wants the full Senate to consider the tax bill next week. Because Republicans hold a narrow 52-to-48 majority, party leaders can afford only two defections, assuming Democrats are unified against the bill and Vice President Mike Pence provides the tiebreaking vote. The math would grow even tighter if Democrats gain a seat in the special election for Senate in Alabama next month.

The concerns expressed by Republican senators are hardly monolithic, and Mr. McConnell will have to walk a delicate line to resolve the issues without setting off additional objections from other lawmakers.

The deficit issue is a crucial one, given several senators have already expressed concerns about piling up more debt as a result of the tax overhaul. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee has said he will not vote for a tax plan that he determines will add to the deficit, after accounting for economic growth spurred by the legislation. Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma has also expressed deficit concerns.

Mr. Flake, who has spoken positively in recent days about the effort to overhaul the tax code, repeated his deficit concerns on Monday.

“We’ve got to realize we have a $20 trillion debt and a deficit that’s about $600 billion a year, and we can’t do things that are simply going to explode that deficit,” Mr. Flake said on KFYI, an Arizona radio station.

“I think we desperately need tax reform,” Mr. Flake said. “It’s been more than 30 years since we’ve had significant tax reform. My concern is that it’s really tax reform and not just tax cuts.”

Another matter under scrutiny is how the Senate bill treats small businesses and other so-called pass-through entities, whose owners pay taxes on profits through the individual tax code.

Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, objects to how such businesses would fare under the legislation, which in his view favors larger corporations. Mr. Johnson came out against the bill last week.

In an interview on the radio station WISN on Monday, Mr. Johnson expressed optimism that the issue would be addressed. But he still complained about what he deemed an “awful, rushed process” with a “desperation to pass anything.”

“That’s not the best way to pass something that’s going to affect so many people’s lives and have such a dramatic impact on our economy,” Mr. Johnson said.

Then there is the contentious issue of health care, which Senate Republicans brought into the already difficult tax debate when they added to their bill the repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most people have health coverage or pay a penalty. The Senate proposal would eliminate those penalties, effectively scrapping the coverage requirement, known as the individual mandate.

The inclusion of the repeal immediately raised questions about how such a provision might influence the votes of the Republican senators who objected to previous efforts this year to repeal the Affordable Care Act, particularly Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Three seperate areas of contention and no certainty which way the Senators in question will vote. And if Mitch does something nice to the noisy ones, what will keep anothe Senator speaking up to get his share of the boodle? No wonder Mitch's throat pouch quivers in fear when an important vote is taken.