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At a Republican fundraiser just south of Denver, Vice President Mike Pence promised to deliver the “largest tax cut in American history” by the end of the year, stressing that Republican unity was critical to ushering the measure through Congress.

Pence’s comments came on the heels of a busy day on Capitol Hill, in which the House of Representatives narrowly approved a that sets the stage for President Donald Trump’s promised tax overhaul.

“I’m going to make a prediction tonight,” Pence told the crowd of a few hundred Republican donors. “We’re going to pass the largest tax cut in American history, and we’re going to pass it this year.”

It was the former Indiana governor’s since President Donald Trump took office. Earlier in the day, he in Jefferson County, before heading to Greenwood Village for the the Colorado Republican Party event at the Marriott Denver Tech Center.

Tax reform has become something of a make-a-break moment for congressional Republicans. after their failure to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and GOP donors and lawmakers alike are hungry for major legislative win.

The tax legislation’s specifics haven’t been released, but prior outlines of the plan have called for reducing the number of income tax brackets from seven to three, increasing the standard deduction, slashing corporate tax rates and eliminating the estate tax, a tax on inheritance among wealthy households that Republicans have long maligned as a “death tax.”

“We’re going to put more money in the American people’s pockets,” Pence said.

While Pence on Thursday characterized the proposal as a ,聽Democrats have blasted the plan as a giveaway to the wealthy.

A September analysis of the tax plan outline by the found that the wealthiest Americans would receive significantly more tax relief than the typical middle class family. Some middle-class households could even see taxes increase, the analysis found.

Republicans have dismissed the report as badly flawed and based on guesswork, absent a complete piece of legislation to analyze.

With Democrats likely to vote in lock-step against the tax cuts, Pence on Thursday stressed the importance of GOP unity — something they lacked in their unsuccessful attempts to pass health care legislation.

“Republican unity is the key, and the stakes are high,” he said.

Already there are signs of discord.

Without offsetting cuts to spending, the $1.5 trillion tax cut would increase the federal deficit, pitting two long-sought goals of the Republican Party against one another: the desire to cut taxes and the quest to rein in the federal debt.

That tension was on display Thursday, when the House of Representatives narrowly passed that lays the procedural groundwork for the tax overhaul. U.S. Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, a member of the fiscally conservative Freedom Caucus, was among 20 Republicans to join all Democrats in voting against the budget.

鈥淲ith $20 trillion in national debt and an estimated more than $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities, we can鈥檛 afford the budget that was on the floor today,鈥� Buck said in a statement.

Already, many Americans seem skeptical of the plan. Just 43 percent of those who have heard of the tax plan believe it will help the middle class, while 60 percent say it would help the wealthy, according to . 聽released this week found that fewer than a third of Americans support the tax plan.

Independent fact checkers have found it’s unlikely to be as big as Pence and Trump have boasted, either. The Associated Press reports the latest proposal would be at most the .

Outside, where snow was lightly falling by late afternoon, more than 100 demonstrators lined South Syracuse Street to protest Pence and the president. Dozens were dressed as characters from the “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the dystopian novel and popular TV series in which women are treated as property.

Chants of “Shame! Shame!” broke out as Republicans began arriving for Pence’s speech.

Democrats, meanwhile, seized on the event — which when they weren’t selling as well as hoped — as evidence that the administration was losing the support and enthusiasm of its base.

“Following the chaos, scandals, and repeated failures of the Trump administration, it抖阴ap no surprise Colorado Republicans are struggling to sell tickets for their big fundraiser with Vice President Mike Pence,” said Vedant Patel, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.