The Senate passed their version of the tax reform bill in the dark of night, at about 2 am EST. The passage of the bill was held up by multiple amendment proposals, and the attempts by Democrats to try and push off the vote.

Honored to preside during tonight's historic tax cut vote in the U.S. Senate… pic.twitter.com/TpL7uX6Rmb

— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) December 2, 2017

Democrats… were not happy.

Republicans were pretty pleased with themselves.

.@SenateMajLdr, @GOPSenFinance Chair @SenOrrinHatch, Sen. @LisaMurkowski, and other senators host a press conference on the historic passage of tax reform. https://t.co/QTc4Lwjw0c

— Senate Republicans (@SenateGOP) December 2, 2017

And while the news is focused mostly on tax brackets, and the next inevitable step of reconciling the House bill and the Senate bill into one bill, floating under the radar is the HUGE (YUGE?) news that the Senate bill repealed the Obamacare mandate.

“Families ought to be able to make decisions about what they want to buy and what works for them — not the government,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said, hailing the accomplishment.

“I believe if people don’t want to buy the ObamaCare insurance, they shouldn’t have to pay a tax penalty to the IRS.”

The Senate tax bill must still be reconciled with House legislation that does not include the mandate’s repeal. But that is unlikely to be a major issue, given support in the GOP conference for repealing the mandate.

So, how did the mandate repeal get into the tax bill? You can thank the Supreme Court for that, as Senator John Thune pointed out a few weeks ago.

Dems object that Rs are inserting health care into the tax bill with individual mandate repeal.

"My understanding is the individual mandate is a tax," Thune responds, referencing SCOTUS decision

— Joseph Lawler (@josephlawler) November 14, 2017

I believe I just heard the sound of a mic dropping https://t.co/PaNJnLpNWE

— Queen of AnCapistan (@syd_viciously) November 14, 2017

Karma is a bitch, huh? https://t.co/57CjftpKjE

— Tracy Jeffords (@TracyJeffords) November 14, 2017

Ha. Suck it Dems #ItsATax https://t.co/15xW5YRXF8

— WhigsnTwigs (@WhigsnTwigs) November 14, 2017

Getting rid of the mandate takes the teeth out of Obamacare, and will hasten the death spiral already in progress. Good. Responsible people should be able to make their own decisions, be they educated gambles or not, about their health without the threat of the IRS looming over them.

Congratulations are due to the Senate for getting the mandate repeal passed in the tax bill. Now don’t weasel out on the American people and remove it during reconciliation.