 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., walks from the chamber to his office as the GOP overhaul of the tax bill nears a vote, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Dec. 1, 2017. WASHINGTON—The Senate passed sweeping revisions to the U.S. tax code past midnight Saturday after Republicans navigated a thicket of internal divisions over deficits and other issues to place their imprint on the economy. Story Continued Below 
 
 Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee was the only Republican to oppose the measure, in what’s also a big victory for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who repeatedly fell short in his efforts to push through an Obamacare repeal measure this year. “Every single member of our conference wanted to get to yes, and all but one did.” 
 
 President Donald Trump praised McConnell and Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch in a tweet after the bill passed, adding, “We are one step closer to delivering MASSIVE tax cuts for working families across America.” 
 
 McConnell and GOP leaders were able to score the necessary votes on Friday by acceding to demands by Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and others for expanded tax breaks for small businesses, homeowners and others. Another provision, knocked out because it violated Senate budget rules, would have explicitly let parents buy tax-advantaged 529 college savings accounts for fetuses, a step they can already take but which anti-abortion forces wanted to inscribe into law. Facing unyielding Democratic opposition, Republicans could lose no more than two GOP senators and prevail with a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Mike Pence, but ended up not needing it. The Senate struck a controversial provision from Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) that would have exempted Hillsdale College, a prominent conservative institution led by a Heritage Foundation board member, from a controversial new tax on university endowments. To pay for that, leaders reduced the number of high-earners who must pay the alternative minimum tax, rather than completely erasing it. In a particularly big victory for leadership, Johnson and Steve Daines (R-Mont. Those businesses would see a deduction included in the Senate bill for them rise from 20 percent to 23 percent, a boost financed by increasing a proposed one-time tax on multinational corporations’ offshore earnings. The multinational provision also puts the Senate bill in line with the House measure, by charging 14 percent on those companies' liquid assets and 7 percent on illiquid ones like facilities, up from the 10 percent and 5 percent the Senate had been considering. The bill hit rough waters after the Joint Taxation panel concluded it would worsen federal shortfalls by $1 trillion over a decade, even when factoring in economic growth that lower taxes would stimulate. Both Corker and Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) pushed for a trigger mechanism that would have forced automatic tax increases if the bill didn’t jog the economy as much as Republicans hope. The Arizona Republican also got a “firm commitment” by party leaders to “work with me” on “fair and permanent protections” for undocumented immigrants threatened with deportation by Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The bill, which included about $1.4 trillion in tax cuts, would lower the corporate rate to 20% from 35%, reshape international business tax rules and temporarily lower individual taxes. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), which was rejected, that would have further expanded the child tax credit while pushing the proposed corporate rate up from 20 percent to almost 21 percent.
– It passed in the wee hours, and by a wee margin: The Senate passed the biggest tax overhaul in more than 30 years Saturday morning 51-49. Tennessee's Sen. Bob Corker was the only Republican to side against the bill. With the House having passed its bill in November, Congress is just a few steps away from getting something on President Trump's desk. He tweeted in part, "Look forward to signing a final bill before Christmas!" Politico reports the final hours before the vote were filled with "horse trading" and some ridicule from Democrats: Minority Whip Dick Durbin tweeted a photo showing a page of the bill with semi-legible handwriting scrawled in the margin, saying, "Trying to review the #GOPTaxScam but they are making hand-written changes to brand new text as we speak – can anyone else read this?" Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer swung at Republicans for releasing a revamped 479-page bill that senators didn't have time to review. GOP Sen. Ron Johnson's take, per the AP: "You really don't read this kind of legislation." Among the numerous last-minute amendments that were debated: A controversial provision by GOP Sen. Pat Toomey that would have given Michigan's conservative Hillsdale College a pass on a new tax on university endowments was axed. Politico reports the House will on Monday formally assemble the conference committee that will work to get the House and Senate measures to jibe; the Senate hasn't commented on a formal conference yet. The Wall Street Journal offers a chart that illustrates key differences between the two bills.