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The New York Times published an article over the weekend laying out a new original story for the FBIs investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with the Russian government.

The infamous Steele dossier was not the catalyst for the investigation, according to four unnamed government officials who spoke to The Times. Rather, a drunken barroom conversation that Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos had with an Australian diplomat in London in May 2016 was what led to the FBI probe.

Democrats and liberal pundits touted the story, which they said showed that Republicans have been overly focused on the dossiers significance to the Russia investigation.

But some congressional Republicans, conservative pundits and a former Trump campaign adviser who has been interviewed extensively by Russia investigators arent buying the new spin.

They assert that there is still ample evidence that the FBI relied on the dossier for its investigation. They also question why, after the FBI/DOJ have dodged questions about the dossier for nearly a year, U.S. government officials have just now started leaking information that downplays the documents significance to the Russia inquiry.

Its too convenient, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee, told The Daily Caller of the Times article.

The Democrats touted the Steele dossiers conspiracy theories all year. But now, with the dossiers credibility in tatters, theyre suddenly claiming that it was a totally irrelevant document all along, another source familiar with the congressional Russia investigations told TheDC.

According to The Times report, the Russia investigation began at the end of July 2016 after the FBI was told by the Australian government about a conversation that Papadopoulos had two months earlier with Alexander Downer, Australias top diplomat to the United Kingdom.

Papadopoulos, an energy consultant who joined the Trump campaign in March 2016, has told Special Counsel Robert Muellers prosecutors that he was informed in April 2016 by a London-based professor named Joseph Mifsud that the Russian government had obtained thousands of Clinton-related emails.

The timing of the claim is significant because it would have been before it was publicly revealed that the Russian government hacked into Clinton campaign chairman John Podestas Gmail account. It remains unclear whether Papadopoulos told anyone on the Trump campaign about Mifsuds claim, much less whether the Trump campaign acted on the information.

Mifsud has some links to Russian government officials, but the full extent of those relationships remains a mystery.

Perhaps the most scathing takedown of the Times report comes from Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor who writes for National Review.

McCarthy notes that the Times had already previously identified a spark for the Russia investigation:former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

The Times reported on April 20, 2017 that a trip that Page made to Moscow in July 2016 was a catalyst for the F.B.I. investigation into connections between Russia and President Trumps campaign.

The Steele dossier alleges that during that trip, Page met secretly with two Kremlin insiders and that he also served as the Trump campaigns liaison to the Kremlin. Page has vehemently denied the allegation. He has also said he had very little interaction with Papadopoulos during the campaign.

The FBI and Justice Department were so concerned by Pages involvement in the campaign that they obtained a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court warrant against him in Sept. 2016.

But McCarthy points out that there has been no suggestion that a similar surveillance warrant was obtained for Papadopoulos.If the FBI and Justice Department were so alarmed by Papadopoulos conversation with Downer, why did they not obtain a FISA warrant against him, McCarthy wonders in his article.

McCarthy also questions why, if Papadopoulos was central to the FBI investigation, he remained unidentified for so long in press reports.

If Papadopoulos had really been the impetus for the investigation way back in July 2016, what are the chances that we would never have heard his name mentioned until after his guilty plea was announced 15 months later? asks McCarthy.

Jordan, the House Judiciary Committee Republican, echoed that point.

When theyre leaking about the dossier and Carter Page back in the spring, where was this then? he asked, referring to leaks from U.S. government officials.

One Trump campaign adviser who has been interviewed extensively by Russia investigators is also questioning the new Papadopoulos-centered narrative.

Investigators were far more interested in Carter Page and his July 2016 trip to Moscow than anything George Papadopoulos ever did or said, the adviser told TheDC.

The NYT is grasping at straws, desperately trying to change the narrative away from the discredited Steele dossier and crumbling Trump-Russia collusion allegations, continued the adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigations.

The Times article comes as several congressional panels have ramped uppressure on the FBI and DOJ to produce documents and witnesses that could help shed light on the dossiers role in the Russia probe.

The House Intelligence and House Judiciary Committees have recently issued or threatened to issue subpoenas that would force agency officials to testify about the dossier.

The agencies recalcitrance to comply has led to allegations of stonewalling from some Republican lawmakers, including House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes.

As the agencies have withheld information from Congress, Democrats have sought to downplay the dossiers importance to the allegations of Trump campaign collusion. That despite an early rush by Democrats to tie the collusion allegations to the Steele report.

California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence panel, quoted the dossiers allegations at length during a March 20, 2017 hearing with then-FBI Director James Comey.

Papadopoulos was a virtual unknown until several months ago, when The Washington Post reported that he had sent at least six emails to other Trump campaign advisers proposing meetings between Trump or campaign officials and Russian government officials, including Vladimir Putin.

Those emails suggested that Papadopoulos requests were largely rebuffed from others on the Trump campaign, including then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

After that spate of reports, Papadopoulos was largely out of the news until the end of October, when it was revealed that he pleaded guilty on Oct. 5 to lying to the FBI during interviews he gave in January and February 2017.

Mueller released documents showing that Papadopoulos had been arrested at the end of July 2017 and had been cooperating with prosecutors in the collusion investigation.

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The looming loss of the Republican seat in the Senate from Alabama adds to the pressure that party members in Congress face to ensure that their tax overhaul faces no last-minute hiccups that push the bill into next year. On Wednesday, they will look to keep the momentum going in the face of Democrats who are feeling newly emboldened.

The conference committee that was created to merge the House and Senate tax bills began its one public meeting on Wednesday afternoon and Democrats immediately denounced the gathering as an exercise in trying to make the tax overhaul look transparent.

Lets understand whats happening today is a sham, said Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee. Nobody ought to mistake this conference for real debate.

Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, said the so-called conference committee, as he put it, is a farce.

Members of the committee assembled for their public session in a basement meeting room in the Capitol, and the partisan skirmishing began right at the outset.

Representative Richard E. Neal of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, asked that the conference committee postpone its work until Doug Jones, the winner of Tuesdays special election for Senate in Alabama, is sworn into office.

The lawmaker presiding over the meeting, Representative Kevin Brady, Republican of Texas and the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said the motion was not allowed.

Representative Lloyd Doggett, Democrat of Texas, quickly clashed with Mr. Brady over his handling of the meeting, reminding him that the session was not being conducted under Putin rules.

Democrats also denounced the substance of the tax overhaul.

The American people are witnessing a master class in how one political party, relying on secrecy, distortion and brute force, can muscle an unpopular, deficit exploding corporate giveaway to passage, Mr. Wyden said. This is the ultimate betrayal of the middle class.

The gathering will be one of the final times that Democrats will be able to publicly criticize the tax legislation while being face-to-face with the Republicans who are crafting it. Thus far, they have largely assailed the partisan process and argued that the bill benefits the rich and corporations and doesnt do enough to help the middle class.

For Republicans, the public meeting is largely for show, as the final negotiations happened behind closed doors and the major details have already been agreed upon. Republicans are planning to pass the bill along party lines and have so far rebuffed Democrats requests to change the bill.

The odds remain strong that congressional Republicans will send a consensus tax bill to Mr. Trump, despite Democrats upset Senate victory in Alabama on Tuesday.

The news that Doug Jones, a Democrat, had defeated Roy Moore, a Republican, in the election immediately sent many liberal activists dreaming of another improbable win: blocking the tax bill.

Math and momentum fueled that activist optimism. Once Mr. Jones is seated in the Senate, Republicans majority in the chamber will narrow to a single seat. The tax bill passed the Senate on a 51-49 vote, with one Republican, Bob Corker of Tennessee, defecting. The hope among liberals was that Mr. Jones victory would give other Republicans pause and delay the process of reconciling the bills.

That seems unlikely to happen, however. Lawmakers have agreed on the contours of a final deal and an influential Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, said she saw no reason to wait for Mr. Jones to be seated before voting on the tax bill.

However, Republicans still need to tread carefully and ensure they have enough support to get the bills over the finish line. If another Republican senator were then to defect for example, Ms. Collins, who extracted concessions from party leadership in order to vote yes on the bill initially, but has watched some of those concessions go as yet unfulfilled then the bill could stall.

Republicans have resolved the differences between the two versions of their tax bill.

Those scenarios still appear highly unlikely. Republican leaders are prepared to hold votes early next week on the measure, well before the Alabama results are expected to be certified, making Mr. Jones eligible to be seated. Party leaders remain confident Mr. Trump will sign the bill before Christmas most likely before Mr. Jones enters the Senate.

The one wrinkle from Tuesday night, for Republicans and the bill, is that the results empower individual senators to demand even more from the leadership for their votes. Ms. Collins and Marco Rubio of Florida have both raised concerns this week about the compromise bill as it is shaping up. Party leaders may be forced to address their concerns or apply more pressure to keep them, and possibly others, in line.

But even if Republicans were to defect en masse in the Senate, the tax bill could still sail to Mr. Trump if House Republicans were to approve the version that passed the Senate. That version included some apparent drafting errors that have upset business interests, most notably the rate of the corporate alternative minimum tax. But in a worst-case scenario, party leaders could decide that bill is better than no bill at all, and promise to return to fix the provisions later an echo of how Democrats proceeded to pass the Affordable Care Act after they lost a similarly stunning Senate special election, in Massachusetts, in 2010.

Democrats are mounting a concerted, though likely fruitless, effort to get Republican leadership in the Senate to delay the tax bill vote until Mr. Jones is seated as a senator from Alabama.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, called on Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, to hit pause on his tax bill after the Democratic candidate won the special election for Senate in Alabama on Tuesday.

It would be wrong for Senate Republicans to jam through this tax bill without giving the newly elected senator from Alabama the opportunity to cast his vote, Mr. Schumer said at a news conference at the Capitol on Wednesday morning.

Mr. Schumer drew a parallel with the election of Scott Brown, a Republican, in a special election in Massachusetts in 2010 as Democrats were trying to enact their health care overhaul.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon similarly said the bill should be delayed until Mr. Jones arrives, saying in a tweet The people of Alabama have spoken.

Mr. Trump hosted Republican lawmakers working on tax legislation for lunch at the White House. Flanked by Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, Mr. Trump gave brief remarks on the tax plan.

Were very close to getting it done, were very close to voting, he said.

The White House on Wednesday released a name of those dining with Mr. Trump, including Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, eight Republican senators and Representative Kevin Brady, Republican of Texas and chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

Ahead of the Conference Committee meeting, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee will be joined by House Democratic leaders for a noon forum on the Republican tax legislation.

House Democrats have invited economists including Mark Zandi, of Moodys Analytics, and Jason Furman, former chairman of President Barack Obamas Council of Economic Advisers, to participate.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has come under attack from Democrats for using fake math to defend the Republican tax plan, was also invited. He is not expected to attend.

Liberal activists are planning to fan across the Capitol on Wednesday to try to flip Republican members of Congress who they think could be persuaded to change their minds on the tax bill.

Members of Housing Works, the Center for Popular Democracy, Womens March, Hedge Clippers, People for Bernie, Strong Economy for All Coalition are planning to stage sit-ins at the offices of Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain of Arizona.

Ady Barkan, a progressive activist with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis who confronted Mr. Flake on an airplane last week, is headlining the rally. According to one of its organizers, he is also hoping to have a meeting with Ms. Collins.

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Republicans Tax Bill Nears the Finish Line - The New York ...

Nicole Gaudiano and Deborah Barfield Berry, USA TODAY Published 11:37 a.m. ET Dec. 10, 2017 | Updated 6:18 a.m. ET Dec. 11, 2017

Sen. Richard Shelby told CNN's Jake Tapper that he didn't vote for GOP candidate Roy Moore in the special election. Instead, he says he chose a write-in candidate.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Doug Jones talks with the media as he visits his campaign call center in Huntsville, Ala. on Thursday December 7, 2017.(Photo: Mickey Welsh, Daily Advertiser-USA TODAY NETWORK)

WASHINGTON Whatever the outcome of Tuesdays special Senate election in Alabama, Republicans will need a lot of Tylenol.

Either they lose the race to Democrat Doug Jones, diminishing their52-seat Senate majority and making it easier for Democrats to compete for it in 2018. Or, they get an entirely different headache with former state Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, who will face an immediate ethics investigation ofallegations that he sexually abused several teenagers including a 14-year-old when he was in his 30s.

The race is tight, with most polls showing Mooreslightly ahead.

There is no good outcome for Republicans, said Josh Holmes, former chief of staff for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The best they can hope for at this stage is that the pain ends sooner rather than later. If he wins, having a divisive figure like Roy Moore with the seriousness of the allegations that have been brought against him as a member of your conference in the Senate is a concerning development for every senator. Losing is potentially putting the Senate majority at risk in 2018.

Moore denies the allegations against him and has refused McConnell and other Republicans calls to withdraw from the race. A far-right, anti-establishment wildcard, Moore doesnt hesitate to fire back at party leadership he called on McConnell to step down, instead or attract media attention with controversial statements.

Twitter erupted lastweek, for instance, when a former Obama administration official retweeted a story about Moores September comment that America was great when families were united. Even though we had slavery, they cared for one another.

More: GOP deeply divided over Republican Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race

More: For Roy Moore, even victory in Alabama Senate race may not be the end of his struggles

More: Trump won't stump for Roy Moore in Alabama but he will some 20 miles away in Florida

As chief justice of the statesupreme court, Moore got in trouble for refusing to remove a marble monument of the Ten Commandments from a state building, and for later directing probate judges to enforce the states ban on same-sex marriage after it was deemed unconstitutional.

Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, predicted that if Moore wins, hell spend much of his time on Fox News, throwing live grenades like bowling balls down the center aisle every day.

Alabamas Republican candidate for Senate, Roy Moore, cannot seem to get out of his own way. Buzz60

Duffy said Moore could have the same effect on the GOP as Todd Akin, the Missouri Republican who lost his 2012 bid after saying pregnancy could be prevented by a woman involved in a "legitimate rape" because "the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

Akinbecame a virus that spread to other campaigns, she said. Thats what Moore has the ability to do in a cycle that already looks pretty hard for them.

Matt Mackowiak, a Republican consultant based in Texas, agreed a Moore win could be a burden for his GOP Senate colleagues. He said senators worryabout having to respond to controversial things he says, and about the impact on midterm elections, particularly for vulnerable Republicans.

This puts a lot of senators in a tough spot, Mackowiak said.

Democrats have already begun using Moore in their attacks against vulnerable Republicans. The partys campaign arm in the House began sending out news releases lastweek, calling on targeted Republicans to disavow Moore and refuse support from the Republican National Committee, after President Trump endorsed him and the RNC resumed funding his campaign.

Alabama voters are getting a recorded phone call of President Donald Trump saying he needs Republican Roy Moore in the U.S. Senate. The recording includes Trump saying progress on his agenda will be "stopped cold" Democrat Doug Jones is elected. (Dec. 11) AP

The Republicans have accepted it, just as they accepted President Trump, who admitted to outrageous things, violating women, said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a reference to a 2005 Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump brags on a hot mic about groping women.

Moore won the GOP primary for U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions former Senate seat without the backing of Trump or McConnell, who both supported Sen. Luther Strange. McConnell and other Republicans called on Moore to step aside after the allegations broke, but Trump announced support for Moorelast week, saying we dont want to have a liberal Democrat in Alabama, believe me. On Friday, Trumpurged Alabamans attending his rallyin Pensacola, Fla. about 20 miles from the Alabama border to "get out and vote for Roy Moore."

A Jones victory would be a big win for Democrats, who need three additional seats to win the Senate majority in 2018. That wont come easy, given theyre defending 10 seats in states Trump won and other pickup opportunities appear limited, at this point, to Arizona and Nevada.

If Alabama was in the D column, if they had a really good day in November, they could pick up the Senate, Holmes said. Its almost impossible for them to do that without Alabama. But with Alabama, the possibility is brightened.

Political observers agree that if Moore wins, hell face a hostile environment in the Senate. GOP leaders have acknowledged they cant stop Moore from being seated, but they said he will immediately face an ethics investigation.

Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told the Weekly Standard on Thursday, Roy Moore will never have the support of the senatorial committee. We will never endorse him. We wont support him. I wont let that happen.

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who is not seeking re-election, tweeted a picture of a check he wrote to Jones campaign.

Of Moore, Flake told USA TODAY, I just hope he doesnt win.

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Alabama race a no-win proposition for Republicans

And it was passed along sharply partisan lines, offering nothing to Democrats, and leaving them with no obligation or incentive to negotiate cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, the entitlement programs that are driving up spending, but are also the pride of the Democratic Party.

For his part, Mr. Trump spent his campaign promising not to cut Medicare and Social Security. And Republicans will probably find, as they did when they failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, that the public rises up to defend the programs they are trying to cut. Whatever political boost the Republicans could get for passing a tax cut could evaporate fast.

Republicans are going to find that Democrats treat this tax bill the way Republicans treated Obamacare its not trusted by people on the other side of the aisle, said former Senator Judd Gregg, who was chairman of the Budget Committee and a member of the Simpson-Bowles commission, a bipartisan group of lawmakers and budget experts that produced a deficit reduction plan in 2010. It will become a target, a rallying cry, which is unfortunate, because good tax reform, when done right, is not only good for the economy, its good for the parties.

Many of the Republicans natural allies have criticized the bill for adding to the deficit and not dealing with the costs that were already driving up the governments red ink. In an op-ed in The Washington Post, the leaders of that 2010 commission, former Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming, a Republican, and Erskine Bowles, a Democrat who is a former White House chief of staff, accused the Republicans of deficit denial, saying the bill incorporated only goodies and virtually no hard choices.

Republicans have been telling themselves for years that they wanted to get into power so they could balance the budget, reduce the debt, cut spending and fix entitlements, Ms. MacGuineas said. Theyve just made it harder, not easier.

For weeks, Democrats and their allies have been accusing Republicans of a two-step deceit, warning that they would cut taxes now and then use the increase in the deficit they caused to demand entitlement cuts later.

When you run up the deficit, your next argument will be, Gee, youve got a large deficit, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a former Democratic presidential candidate, said in an interview.

Now Republicans are beginning to acknowledge as much. Mr. Ryan said at a town hall-style meeting last month that Congress had to spur growth and cut entitlements to reduce the national debt.

The Republican tax plan, he said grows the economy. But, he added, weve got a lot of work to do in cutting spending.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida was more specific on Wednesday, telling business leaders that the tax cuts were just the first step; the next is to reshape Social Security and Medicare for future retirees.

The argument would be we cant cut taxes because it will drive up the deficit, he said, saying that he disagreed. You have to do two things, he said. You have got to generate economic growth because growth generates revenue. But you also have to bring spending under control. And not discretionary spending. That isnt the driver of our debt. The driver of our debt is the structure of Social Security and Medicare for future beneficiaries.

The Congressional Budget Office projects that spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will cost the federal government $28.6 trillion through 2027. The tax cut, estimated at nearly $1.5 trillion, makes the problem only mildly worse.

But if that trillion-dollar boost to the governments yawning fiscal hole is comparatively small mathematically, it could add up to much more politically if it keeps Democrats away from the negotiating table.

And even if Republicans do not pursue changes to entitlements, the tax bill will trigger pay-as-you-go requirements that Congress cut spending. That would be a particularly big hit to Medicare, which would face a $25 billion cut for the current fiscal year. Groups like AARP, the lobby for older Americans, warn that it would force doctors and hospitals to turn away patients because reimbursements would be cut so drastically.

Mr. Ryan and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, released a statement Friday saying that the so-called pay-go cuts will not happen because Congress would waive the law, as it has in the past. But they will need Democratic votes to do that, in a climate that is unusually partisan.

Regardless of whether Republicans can waive these cuts, David Certner, legislative counsel for AARP, said, You know theyre going to come back and say, We need to make more cuts to deal with the growing debts and deficit.

Some deficit hawks complain that Republicans have cast away any mantle of fiscal responsibility.

Robert L. Bixby, the executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan organization that encourages fiscal responsibility, complained of hypocrisy from Republicans who have been clamoring to lift the spending caps that were created by the 2011 Budget Control Act.

If the tax cuts do not generate the revenue Republicans are expecting, he predicted, people will say, No, were not getting the growth because we should have cut taxes even more.

The United States is already facing a gloomy fiscal landscape. The federal deficit this year topped $660 billion, despite healthy economic growth, and the national debt now exceeds $20 trillion. Janet L. Yellen, the outgoing chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, appointed by President Barack Obama, warned last week that the national debt is the type of thing that should keep people awake at night.

But Democrats and their allies and even some usual Republican allies complain that Republicans are dishonest not to debate changes in spending and tax cuts at the same time, as the Simpson-Bowles commission did.

Sharon Parrott, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said Republicans understood how bad it would look to cut food benefits for poor families and health care for the elderly at the same time they were cutting taxes for corporations and the highest earners.

Theres a reason they separate them, she said. They think they can get away with it.

But in an election year with high political engagement, she said, I think its wrong to count out the idea that the public will figure it out.

An article in the Dec. 3 edition of The New York Times inaccurately quoted Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. He said the driver of the federal debt is Social Security and Medicare but did not specify instituting structural changes.

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Heading Toward Tax Victory, Republicans Eye Next Step: Cut ...

The Senate bill would cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from a top rate of 35 percent. For individuals, it would make tax cuts temporary and create seven income tax brackets, with a bottom rate of 10 percent and a top marginal rate of 38.5 percent, down from the current rate of 39.6 percent.

Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the Republican chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said that he felt encouraged that the two chambers would be able to align their bills but that the House would not simply pass the Senate legislation.

For as much common ground as we have, there are some areas where we are taking different approaches that will be worked, and can only be worked out, in a conference, Mr. Brady said.

Lawmakers are also awaiting a report from the Joint Committee on Taxation that would show the effects of the proposed tax cuts on the economy. That analysis is important, since it will indicate the extent to which the cuts will bolster growth and avoid adding to the deficit. Outside analysts expect the assessment to demonstrate that the Senate bill does not create nearly enough growth to generate revenues to offset those lost via tax cuts, essentially undermining Republicans claims that the bill would pay for itself.

Mr. Corker, who has voiced the loudest concerns about the bills effect on the deficit, said on Tuesday that he received assurances that the final legislation would include a mechanism to avoid ballooning the debt, which has passed $20 trillion. While the exact details were not specified, the bill is expected to include some type of trigger that would require certain taxes to increase if the package does not generate as much revenue as projected.

I think weve come to a pretty acceptable place, from my standpoint, said Mr. Corker, who has stated that he would be unable to vote for the bill if it added to the federal deficit.

That trigger, however, could complicate the bills passage. Several other Republican lawmakers, including Mr. Brady and Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, are resistant to the idea of including a trigger that would increase taxes.

Im not too keen on automatic tax increases, Mr. Kennedy said. Im just not too excited about this idea of automatically tying our hands.

Americans for Prosperity, the conservative group backed by Charles G. and David H. Koch, also blasted the idea, calling a trigger mechanism antithetical to the principles of the unified tax framework that lawmakers have proposed.

There is no consensus among economists about the amount of growth that would occur under the plan, but key models predict it would not cover its cost.

Other holdouts, like Mr. Johnson, appear to have been swayed by admonishments or assurances. Mr. Johnson objected to the bill on the grounds that it did not do enough to help so-called pass-through businesses, which pass their income on to their owners.

During lunch with Mr. Trump, the president chastised Mr. Johnson over objections he raised in the meeting, telling the senator at one point, Come on, Ron, according to a person familiar with the discussion who declined to be identified because the event was not public.

Mr. Johnson voted for the bill on Tuesday, telling reporters: The good news is, everybody agrees its a problem, it has to be fixed. I just keep getting assurances its going to be fixed. I just want to see how.

Other Republican senators who have been skeptical of the tax bill also appeared ready to back it.

Ms. Collins, who has not yet thrown her support behind the bill, said that she felt more optimistic about the plan after meeting with the president.

I believe that a lot of my concerns, it appears, are going to be addressed and that Im going to be getting the opportunity to offer amendments on the Senate floor, she said.

Ms. Collins said that the president was supportive of her wishes that $10,000 of property taxes be deductible under the Senate plan, a change that would be similar to the compromise that House Republicans made on the repeal of the state and local tax deduction. She also said that Mr. Trump was supportive of backing legislation to help stabilize health insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act, which she said would help mitigate the effects of ending the laws requirement that most people have insurance, as the tax bill would do.

Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, said that Senate Republicans were increasingly united about repealing the requirement that most people have health insurance or pay a penalty.

He said that Mr. Trump was very involved in the details of the tax package on Tuesday and that he took several questions from senators.

He had a vigorous back-and-forth, Mr. Alexander said.

Both Mr. Alexander and Ms. Collins demurred when asked whether they would be concerned if the Joint Committee on Taxation report showed that the bill would increase the deficit even with additional economic growth.

Im not going to be hypothetical about that, Mr. Alexander said.

Democrats on the Budget Committee assailed their Republican colleagues for shedding their deficit hawk feathers and backing a bill that they say is fiscally irresponsible. Many Republican senators left after protesters disrupted the meeting, chanting, Kill the bill.

Acknowledging that a final vote was most likely days away, Democratic leaders appeared to have few procedural maneuvers left to slow the progress of the tax bill.

Our Republican colleagues, in their rush to get a bill done, are legislating in an irresponsible way, especially when it comes to something as important and complex as the tax code, said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader.

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Republicans Clear Major Hurdle as Tax Bill Advances