The final legislative outcome was not in doubt, but the ramifications of the legislation were. Republicans said the bill would prompt an economic boom sufficient to offset a projected explosion in the federal deficit, create jobs, raise wages and even contribute to national unity.
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Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times
“This is a new beginning, if you will, and a time for America to really forge a path of leadership in this new century that provides a better quality of life and a higher standard of living for American families,” said Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Senate Republican.
Congressional Democrats — who all rejected the measure — predicted a severe political backlash. They are itching to pound Republicans for what Democrats consider to be an ill-timed and ill-conceived giveaway to the rich by a party and a president who promised to intercede for the working class.
Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, labeled the bill “simply theft — monumental, brazen theft from the American middle class and from every person who aspires to reach it.”
Republicans dismissed the denunciation as sour grapes. They didn’t seem overly worried about the political consequences of tying their future to legislation that was polling badly. For many, this was precisely what they had come to Washington to do, and they had finally done it with the help of President Trump — a man who might sometimes make their lives more difficult but was eager to sign their tax bill and claim his share of the credit.
“Even before the rise of Donald Trump, we have been awaiting this day to be done for a long time,” Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said in a recent interview. “We just didn’t have the pieces in place to achieve it. And all of the sudden after November’s election, we did have the pieces in place.”
Mr. McConnell has considered criticism of his party for its lack of accomplishment to be a bad rap, pointing to the flurry of conservative judicial appointments he has engineered as well as successful efforts by the Trump administration to ease the federal regulatory environment.
But there was no denying that Republicans, in full control of the White House and Congress, had failed to meet their own lofty expectations set at the start of the year, and the furious two-month drive to pass the tax bill reflected that sentiment.
For Mr. Ryan, this was a watershed day. His pursuit of a tax cut had dominated his career and he gaveled down the winning vote with such enthusiasm that the gavel fell to the floor.
“This is profound change and this is change that is going to put our country on the right path,” Mr. Ryan said.
Yet he had shifted his message from a few weeks ago when he dismissed parallels to the Democratic passage in 2010 of the new health care law, which proved an anchor for Democrats in midterm elections that year. Mr. Ryan had initially said that the tax cut was not unpopular, as the health care law had been; now he says that the tax cuts will prove popular as Americans realize the benefits.
“Results are going to make this popular,” he said.
But Democrats, even those up for re-election in areas dominated last year by Mr. Trump, expressed their opposition with their votes. Not one was willing to support the bill, which Democratic strategists said would penalize suburban swing voters who have already shown increasing antipathy to Republicans in elections this year.
“This bill is a significant missed opportunity,” said Senator Joe Donnelly of Indiana, one of the Democrats facing re-election who is most at risk of losing his seat next year.
Republicans were already facing a rough time in 2018 given the usual reverberations against a first-term president of the same party, and the tax bill could exacerbate those difficulties. Not to mention that lawmakers still had to extricate themselves from the possibility of a voter-alienating government shutdown by the end of the week.
Republicans said they were confident that voters would quickly see gains under the tax bill — lower payroll withholding and strong employment numbers, for example — and reward those who supported the legislation.
They acknowledge it is a gamble, but one they saw as well worth taking. After all, it is precisely what many of them came to Washington to do.
