How four GOP senators guided a tax-bill victory behind the scenes

The Hill reports:

Senate Republicans breathed a collective sigh of relief early Saturday morning when a $1.4 trillion tax bill that had teetered on the brink of failure passed with only one GOP defection.

Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Senate GOP Conference Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) played key roles in helping Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) salvage the bill, according to lawmakers and aides familiar with the process.

So did two other Senate Finance Committee members — Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio), two of McConnell’s advisers on tax issues.

Cornyn negotiated the deal that secured the votes of Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who gave leaders the 50 votes they needed to pass the legislation.

Meeting with the rebels in his Capitol office just off the Senate floor, Cornyn agreed to increase the deduction for pass-through businesses to 23 percent and pay for it by raising the tax rate on repatriated foreign earnings, according to an aide familiar with the conversation.

How it happened.