Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersNYT editorial board remembers Ginsburg: She 'will forever have two legacies' Two GOP governors urge Republicans to hold off on Supreme Court nominee Sanders knocks McConnell: He's going against Ginsburg's 'dying wishes' MORE (I-Vt.) on Wednesday slammed the GOP tax plan as a "Robin Hood proposal in reverse."

"They are taking from the working families and the poor and they are giving to the rich. It's a proposal that must be defeated," he said during a CNN debate about the tax plan with Sen. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzMurkowski: Supreme Court nominee should not be taken up before election Battle lines drawn on precedent in Supreme Court fight Sunday shows - Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death dominates MORE (R-Texas).

Robin Hood in English folklore is painted as a heroic outlaw who steals money being collected for the King and returns it to the poor.

Cruz, however, said Sanders had "fundamentally misunderstood that story" by missing that the kingdom was overtaking the working class.

"Robin Hood was robbing the tax collectors, who were collecting too much taxes from the working men and women, and taking it for the rich. In Bernie's analogy, it is Democrats who are King John and the Sheriff of Nottingham," Cruz said in response to the reference. ADVERTISEMENT

"And Robin Hood is saying, 'Tax collectors: stop hammering people who are struggling, who were laboring in the fields who are working, stop taking it to the castle to give out to your buddies.' Bernie's going to tell you all this free stuff he's going to give and Democrats love corporate welfare," he continued.

President Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers released a report on Monday arguing that the GOP proposal to cut the corporate tax rate would boost average household incomes by $4,000 to $9,000 annually.

The White House is pushing back against tax-reform critics who say his plan will largely benefit the rich, casting the measure as something that will help workers by slashing corporate tax rates.

“We want to make sure that the middle class is the biggest beneficiary of the tax cuts and tax reform,” Trump told reporters on Monday.

“It's a middle-class bill. That's what we're thinking of. That's what I want,” the president continued.

After the failure to repeal ObamaCare, the stakes are high for Republicans to deliver on their tax-reform promises, with some in the party suggesting the GOP could lose one or both houses of Congress in the midterm elections next year if they fail.

Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said they’d like a tax bill passed this year, though they noted that previous administrations took more than one year to pass major pieces of legislation.