Remember, this isn't about protecting the rich. The new tax reform plans have plenty of booby traps for high individual income earners, including a de facto fourth tax bracket of 39.6 percent. And the individual investors who will be hurt by the new tax change the mutual funds are exempted from aren't going to be middle class or poor either. But the key word here is "individuals." And politicians really don't care about them.

The bad news for them and the tax reform plan's chances of passing is that they should care. It's going to be hard to sell this tax reform bill well enough to get all the obstinate and wary Republican senators in that slim four-seat GOP majority on the "yes" side.

The only way to do that will be to add more tax breaks for the middle class and get every key Republican from President Donald Trump on down to make middle class and individual tax breaks the key part of their pitch to the public. And that pitch needs to include a credible argument that the smart tax breaks going to the big corporations are at least somewhat being duplicated on the middle class/individual side. Otherwise, the Democrats will have a credible argument that GOP tax reform is all about making everyone else pay for tax cuts for big corporations and special interests.

With just over a month until Christmas, the Senate just signaled it's not even going in the right direction. It's so far off the mark that the only thing that could save it would be a president who was focused on fixing the problems. The bad news is President Trump seems more focused on getting the bill passed than making its parts more worth passing in the first place, similarly to how he handled the health bills.

Don't be fooled by last week's successful House vote. The Senate is a totally different animal with more than just the three wayward total Republicans who could kill the bill. The big corporations are already on board with this plan, the best way to save it is to stop worrying about them and revenue projections and put more in this bill for the middle class and the most productive individual Americans before it's too late.

Commentary by Jake Novak, CNBC.com senior columnist. Follow him on Twitter @jakejakeny.

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