Senate passes tax cut 51-48; Trump signing ceremony will follow House re-vote

In the end, they didn't lose any Republican votes, although John McCain's absence kept the ayes from being the full 52 in the Republican caucus. Oh, and of course, protesters showed up, since some people think that when the government doesn't steal from others, it steals from them:

The Senate approved the Republican tax-cut bill in a 51-48 vote on Wednesday morning, inching closer to finishing off the first major legislative victory of President Trump’s tenure.

The party-line Senate vote came hours after the House on Tuesday approved the sweeping legislation in a 227-203 vote. The Senate vote was briefly interrupted by protesters, who were removed from the Senate chamber after yelling at senators from the gallery, including chants of "kill the bill don't kill us" and "you're fired." One protester specifically called out GOP Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), urging him to save the Affordable Care Act. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was also on the Senate floor during the vote, with several GOP senators going up to talk with him and shake his hand.

We've discussed many times before that the tax bill isn't everything we would prefer, which is to say it doesn't totally rip out the tax code from the roots and replace it with something simple and unoppressive. Having said that, it's the biggest reform of the tax code since 1986 - and the reduction of the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent is the single most important tax law change of my lifetime (all 51 years of it). The fact that it also repeals the ObamaCare individual mandate and opens up oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are just gravy.

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This is a bill that doesn't do every good thing that could be done. But it does a great many good things. It lowers both the corporate rate and individual rates. It doubles people's standard deductions. It eliminates the alternative minimum tax for corporations and severely limits the number of individuals who will have to pay the awful AMT. It raises the exemption on the inheritance tax to $11 million, meaning you'll have to inherit more than that before you're subject to the tax. As we told you last night, the House has to re-vote this morning because of a glitch in their original vote. Once that's done, the bill will go to President Trump for his signature - most likely some time later today - and at that point it becomes law. This is the best economic policy change in this country since the Reagan years, and that was an awfully long time ago. One other thing: Much of the media will focus on this as a "legislative win for Trump" or for Republicans, as if the only thing that matters is that it looks good for your side to be able to put its signature on something. Who cares about that? This is a win for the American people, particularly those seeking economic opportunity. That's who wins, not some politician. There's much work that needs to be done. There's another year in this congressional session and they need to try again to repeal ObamaCare. They also need to tackle entitlements if they have the gumption. But no single agenda item was more important than this one. Mission accomplished. It's good to finally say: Nice work, Republicans.