The Senate adopted a fiscal 2018 budget resolution Thursday thatHouse GOP leaders agreed to accept, a show of unity aimed atspeeding consideration of President Donald Trump’s plan to enact tax cuts.

The budget cleared the Senate 51-49, with all Democrats andRepublican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky votingagainst it.

“This now allows for the passage of large scale Tax Cuts (andReform),” Trump tweeted Friday, saying that Paul will vote for taxcuts.

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Final approval of the measure will unlock a special procedureallowing Republicans to pass a subsequent tax code rewrite withoutDemocratic support. The House and Senate tax-writing committeesplan to release draft legislation by early November, which will setoff a furious lobbying battle as Republicans attempt to enact abill by the end of the year.

House and Senate Republicans crafted an amendment to the Senatebudget designed to remove the need to spend weeks working toreconcile it with the version already passed by the House. TheHouse would simply vote on the budget that passed the Senate; planscall for holding that vote next week, a House aide said.

Senators acknowledged that producing the budget, which tookmonths of work by Budget Chairman Mike Enzi of Wyoming and hisstaff, is the easiest part of enacting a tax overhaul.

"This is a necessary part that hasn’t been easy, but I thinkwe’re going to get there," GOP Senator Lindsey Graham of SouthCarolina said before the vote. "It’s an uphill task. We’re sort ofat the bottom of the mountain and we have to keep climbing to thetop."

Graham-Paul feud

Earlier in the week, Graham feuded with Kentucky’s Paul, who demanded a $43 billion cutto war spending levels allowed by the budget. "He’s always gota reason to vote no," Graham said. Paul also opposed Graham’spartial Obamacare repeal bill that failed in the Senate last month.

To avoid a repeat of the embarrassing Obamacare setback,Republicans must find a way to mollify members eager to protectcherished tax breaks while also satisfying senators like Bob Corkerof Tennessee who oppose increasing the deficit and won’t buyarguments that trillions of dollars in tax cuts will pay forthemselves through economic growth alone.

"The only way for thisto work -- I met with Secretary Mnuchin last night on this verytopic -- they’ve got to close $4 trillion in loopholes, they’ve gotto make the taxes permanent in nature, and that’s going to be thetoughest part because for every high-paid lobbyist it’s going to bea knife fight," Corker told reporters, referring to TreasurySecretary Steven Mnuchin.

The GOP budget compromise took shape Thursday evening. It allowsfor more defense spending in the first year, in line with the Housebudget, according to a Republican aide. It eliminates Houselanguage to expedite $203 billion in entitlement savings, whileleaving in place Senate language that would allow drilling in theArctic National Wildlife Refuge. Senate Democrats tried withoutsuccess to strip out the drilling provision.

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On taxes, the compromise would keep the Senate’s languageallowing tax cuts that add up to $1.5 trillion to the deficit, notincluding the effects of economic growth, according to the aide.The House plan had required tax changes not to lose revenue.

GOP leaders worked to ensure they had enough votes for finalpassage of the budget measure, H.Con.Res. 71. An ailing SenatorThad Cochran returned to Washington from Mississippi to cast hisvote.

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said in a statement theSenate budget vote “keeps us on track to enacting historic taxreform that will mean more jobs, fairer taxes, and bigger paychecksfor American families.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ofKentucky called it “the first step towards replacing our broken taxcode.”

Democrats weren’t happy.

Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia said in a statement, “I’membarrassed that this body voted to saddle our children with moredebt.” He said the legislation will make it difficult to pass abipartisan tax bill.

The final Senate action followed a series of votes on amendmentsknown as a vote-a-rama that started Thursday at 3 p.m. Washingtontime.

Senate Democrats used this week’s budget process to forceRepublicans to take politically painful votes that highlightstudies showing the tax framework unveiled sofar would probably add trillions to the deficit while mostlybenefiting the wealthy. Republicans say the studies are incorrectbecause final tax brackets and credits haven’t been announced.

In one vote, the Senate defeated 51-47 an amendment byDemocratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota that would havebarred tax increases for people earning less than $250,000 a year.Enzi called the proposal a poison pill because it would tie theFinance Committee’s hands.

The Senate voted on dueling amendments on the state and localtax deduction, which many Republicans want to eliminate. Senatorssignaled support for at least limiting the deduction by supportingan amendment by GOP Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginiaon a 52-47 vote. Members defeated a Democratic amendment aimed atprotecting the deduction.

Senate Republicans signaled their intentions on dealing withcontentious issues in a tax plan by rejecting Democratic amendmentsthat would bar raising the deficit, prevent any middle-class taxincreases, and block tax breaks for the top 1 percent. The votesindicated that Republicans will try to rewrite the tax code withmostly -- if not exclusively -- GOP votes. It’s a gamble thatthey’ll succeed where they failed on replacing Obamacare.

"Not delivering on tax reform just isn’t an option," saidthird-ranking GOP Senator John Thune of South Dakota. "If we don’tget that done, then we’re obviously going to be held accountable bythe people of this country, and we should."

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