Washington Post: “Now, Republican leaders may have to brace for an intraparty battle over how far to go to accommodate deficit concerns. Other Republicans are arguing strongly against reducing the size of the bill’s tax cut, as may now be necessary to satisfy the deficit hawks.”

“Thursday evening, senators were eyeing a wide range of options to move legislation forward. They are discussing adding higher taxes on upper-income Americans and modestly rolling back the bill’s large corporate tax cut. But they did not have an obvious solution, given the need to add hundreds of billions of revenue back into the bill.”

Wall Street Journal: “One possible outcome is that the corporate tax rate would start at 20% and rise in stair-step increments in later years. That move could shrink the size of the tax cut by at least $350 billion over a decade, making it about three-quarters of its previous size and potentially dampening some of the economic growth Republicans said they are trying to create.”

Axios: “Aides say they still hope to bring all 52 Republicans to yes. But it’s going to be extremely hard to find ways to raise as much as $500 billion in revenue overnight, and raising taxes could lose other members.”

A Republican plan to automatically trigger tax increases or spending cuts if revenue falls short has been shot down the U.S. Senate’s parliamentarian, the Washington Post reports.

“The tension played out during a tense 62-minute standoff on the Senate floor, as Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) refused to vote with their colleagues until they had assurances that more changes could be made to the bill.”

Axios: “A trigger was the way Republicans were going to get members worried about the deficit to back the tax bill. Now Republicans need to find hundreds of billions of dollars to make deficit hawks happy or the bill might die — and many Republicans don’t like any other ideas to raise taxes.”

“Congress’ nonpartisan tax analysts have concluded the Senate Republicans’ tax plan would add $1 trillion to the deficit over 10 years, contradicting White House promises the bill would pay for itself and complicating GOP leaders’ efforts to find the support they need to pass the bill through a closely divided Senate,” the Washington Post reports.