Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Bob Corker of Tennessee resolved their differences.

The positions of Johnson and Bob Corker were at odds. Johnson wants to lower pass-through taxes for small businesses, which will add to the deficit.

"My primary issue is pass-throughs," Mr. Johnson said. "The good news is everybody agrees it's a problem, it has to be fixed. I just keep getting assurances it's going to be fixed, I just want to see how."

Johnson has assurances the problem will be fixed. How? Not even he knows.

Mr. Corker, a deficit hawk, wants some kind of mechanism to be added to the legislation that would kick in if projected economic growth from the tax rewrite does not end up materializing.