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Article snippet: WASHINGTON — When Senate Republicans entered the final stages of the health care push earlier this year, it was clearly on its last legs. At least two senators had made it known that they had no real intention of voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and Republican leaders were casting about for something — anything — that could get 50 votes. Now, as their tax bill reaches the homestretch, Republicans are in tantalizing reach of their first real legislative success of the Trump era. The Senate voted along party lines, 52 to 48, on Wednesday to formally take up legislation that would cut taxes by as much as $1.5 trillion over 10 years, remake the corporate tax code and effect large changes to individual taxation. The routine procedural vote, so fraught during the health care debate, began an amendment process that should end in the bill’s passage by Friday. And this time, Senate Republicans are approaching the finish line in a fundamentally different posture: confident, cooperative, even cocky. “It’s like night and day,” said Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana. “At this point in the health care debate, people were walking out and talking about each other’s mamas and getting mad and it just wasn’t healthy, it wasn’t productive. It was like a bunch of kids in the back of a minivan.” “This time,” he continued, “it’s very constructive and we’re trying to make a good bill better and everybody’s in good faith.” The story of the tax legislation is in small... Link to the full article to read more