"When [President William McKinley], most famously, put tariffs on in 1890, they lost 50% of their seats in the next election,” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told reporters. “When Smoot and Hawley put on their tariff in the early 1930s, we lost the House and the Senate for 60 years. So they’re not only bad economically, they’re bad politically.”

U.S. Senate Republicans planned a first step on Thursday toward advancing President Donald Trump's sweeping tax cut agenda with a procedural vote that will test party unity in the face of concerns that it does not include sufficient spending cuts.