White House officials admitted on Wednesday President Trump faces an uphill battle to sell tax reform to Americans, due to the way Democrats "characterized" the plan leading up to its passage.
"Unfortunately, the way the bill has been characterized, in many cases, has been misleading," a senior administration official told reporters.
"The basic concern among Americans is that they don't think they're going to get a tax cut and the reality is that they're going to get a tax cut," the official said.
Congressional Democratic leaders long sought to derail the GOP push for tax reform, claiming legislation that was moving through both chambers would hike taxes for millions of low-to-middle income Americans and exclusively benefit wealthier individuals and corporations.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the final draft "the worst bill in the history of the United States Congress" before it passed the House late Tuesday afternoon.
In addition to partisan criticism, recent polls show that half of Americans think the GOP tax plan will lead to higher taxes for them in the new year. Only 14 percent of voters were convinced their taxes will go down in 2018 in a Monmouth University poll released Monday.
Still, the administration is confident that public opinion will change once the sweeping changes take effect next year.
"I think, in many ways, when paychecks begin being delivered we will make our case to the American people," said the senior administration official. "We feel the truth will set things straight."
The same official said Trump "will do a lot to sell the bill" in the first few months of 2018.
