Lawmakers Near Deal on Billions in Tax Cuts:

The package would extend or make permanent around 50 temporary tax breaks that have expired or will soon lapse. By combining business breaks that are priorities of Republicans with tax credits for lower-income workers and families that are critical to Democrats, negotiators are seeking a balanced package that could transcend the partisanship that often paralyzes Congress….

For decades, Republicans as well as many Democrats, including Mr. Obama, have called for making some of the tax extenders permanent, including the research credit. But they could not agree on offsetting savings, mainly because Republicans refused to increase other taxes.

Now, with both parties colluding to waive the pay-as-you-go principle that legislation should not increase annual deficits, the negotiators from the House and Senate tax committees — in consultation with congressional leaders and the Obama administration — have bid up the size of the package over days of talks.

Not Even Catharsis Is Seen in Senate Vote to Repeal Health Law:

Senate Republicans have finally fulfilled their long quest to pass legislation repealing President Obama’s landmark health care law, and Congress will soon send the measure to the White House, where it might have a chance of being folded into origami or a fleet of paper airplanes, but no possibility of being signed into law.

While a veto is certain, putting the repeal measure on Mr. Obama’s desk will fulfill a pledge by Republicans, highlighting how fiercely they still oppose the law nearly six years after it was passed solely by the votes of Democrats, the only bill of such consequence in modern American history to be approved on a strictly party-line vote.

So, what next?

It is unclear that lawmakers have drawn constructive lessons from the experience, and there is no sign that either party will use the repeal vote as a cathartic turning point onto a more cooperative path. Republicans say they will spend the election year using the vote as part of a broader call to elect a president of their party to get rid of the Affordable Care Act altogether. Democrats concede cooperation from their side is unlikely.