Barnes: The GOP Triumphs of 2017

ANWR was opened for development as part of the Republican tax reform enacted last month. The tax bill became law through a legislative process called “reconciliation” that made profit-making assets attractive to lawmakers. Opening ANWR meant tax cuts could be bigger.

This was a relatively small Republican victory, but just one of many that made 2017 the “most consequential year from a right-of-center point of view,” Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell says, since he was elected in 1984.