The vote cleared the way to enact major elements of President Trump’s domestic agenda and escalated a bitter fight among Republicans over what federal programs to shrink to finance major tax cuts.
Fun Fact, the House actually passed this bill 217 to 215 with only a single Republican voting against, meaning if every Dem had also been present and voted against it still would have passed by the bare minimum number of votes. This also opens up the possibility of Republicans bypassing filibuster with reconciliation.