The Gang that Couldn’t Legislate: The Senate last night approved the sweeping tax reform bill 51-48, the most radical tax re-write since the Reagan administration.

The House will have to vote again today because the bill they passed yesterday violated Senate budget rules.

To explain it simply, because the tax reform is being pushed through as a budget bill, it can’t include anything that doesn’t affect the budget. The Senate parliamentarian had some objections.

The House  had passed the bill yesterday 227-203, largely on party lines. Twelve House Republicans voted no, including representatives from high-tax states like New York, New Jersey and California.

The reform gives permanent tax cuts to corporations, and temporary cuts to individuals expiring in 2027.

The Democrats say the Republicans are giving a huge gift to corporations and the wealthy while driving up the federal debt.

Two Fordham University law professors write in the NY Times that, “The deficit-increasing bill that resulted tilts heavily toward the very rich, financing tax cuts on the backs of future generations. These policies not only face the risk of being undone by a future Democratic majority, but also could indeed prove to be so lopsided as to alienate the more centrist of Republicans.”

But House Speaker Paul Ryan said, “Today, we are giving the people of this country their money back.”

The Numbers: President Trump’s approval rating is 35 percent, down from 45 percent in March, according to a new poll from CNN.

Trump still has 85 percent approval among Republicans, but just 33 percent with independents, and 4 percent among Democrats.

Averaging major polls, the fivethirtyeight blog gives Trump a 37.1 percent approval rating, and 57.4 disapproval.

The Apple Doesn’t Fall: Speaking at a gathering of young conservatives in West Palm Beach, Donald Trump Jr. repeated his father’s campaign claim that the American system is rigged. But Junior ratcheted it up a notch, suggesting that there’s a conspiracy against his father.  Speaking about the Special Counsel’s investigation he said, “My father talked about a rigged system throughout the campaign, and people were like, ‘Oh, what are you talking about?’ But it is. And you’re seeing it.”

Then he said, “There is and there are people at the highest levels of government that don’t want to let America be America.”

The Payoffs: Over the four years between 2008 and 2012, congressional offices shelled out $342,225 to settle sexual harassment and a variety of discrimination complaints, according to The Congressional Office of Compliance.

The settlements were paid with taxpayer money. The COC did not list individual names and numbers.

One Man, One Vote: A recount in the Newport News voting district of Virginia has taken away Republican control of the state’s House of Delegates for the first time in 17 years. The recount gave a Democratic candidate a one-vote margin of victory that balances the House of Delegates at 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats.

Republicans will still control the Virginia Senate, 21-19.

Crash: A bus carrying passengers from two cruise ships rolled over in eastern Mexico yesterday, killing 12 people and sending more to the hospital. Seven Americans were among the injured.

The 31 passengers on the bus came from the Royal Caribbean ships Celebrity Equinox and Serenade of the Seas. The tourists were on their way to visit Mayan ruins.

The Obit Page: Cardinal Bernard Law, who was forced to resign from the Archdiocese of Boston after revelations that he had protected sexually abusive priests, has died at age 86 in Rome.

Law had been a powerful figure in the Catholic Church, and possibly the most prominent Catholic prelate in the US. The Boston Globe revealed that Law and other church leaders shifted molesting priests from parish to parish without removing them from service.

The Globe’s first report focused on Father John Geoghan, who was found to have molested 150 children, but was never turned in to the police.

Law left the archdiocese facing $100 million in damage claims and potential bankruptcy.

Baked Alaska: Ok, we admit stealing that from The Washington Post. The paper reports that Alaska is having its warmest December on record.

Average temperatures are running about 20 degrees above normal. Juneau hit 54 degrees one day and Anchorage 45. The normal high is in the single digits and the low around minus 10.

The chilliest place in Alaska right now is in the Palin home.

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