Republicans finally get what they wanted out of Trump

It may have taken a year, but Republicans are starting to have fun. Indeed, despite the menace posed by the special counsel investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 campaign, they are starting to realize that they have something to show for all the pain and discomfort they have endured at the president’s hands.

“It’s huge. Huge,” said Larry Kudlow, an economic analyst who serves as an informal adviser to the president and lobbies for the tax bill. “Politically, it is very powerful for Trump and the GOP Congress, so they can now show that they’ve gotten this big thing done.”

The GOP’s high-profile failure to repeal Obamacare “created a perception that there was some deeper problem with the Trump administration or some deeper problem with Speaker Ryan’s leadership of the House,” said Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. “Then they went ahead and tried the same strategy with the tax bill, and it turned out that worked, and they’re looking like the smartest guys in town. So results matter. This is a major win.”