The tax bill’s impending passage came as a top U.N. monitor issued a scathing report on poverty in the United States, saying the Trump administration and Republicans are turning the U.S. into the “world champion of extreme inequality.” Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, warned the tax bill will transfer vast amounts of wealth to the richest earners while making life harder for the 41 million Americans living in poverty.

Philip Alston: “I think the 'American dream' is moving fairly rapidly towards the 'American illusion,' because social mobility in this country is now extremely low, by any Western standards. If you are born in poverty, guess where you’re going to end up. In poverty.”