WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans must now shift their focus to enacting President Donald Trump's sweeping tax plan, a far heavier lift than the $4 trillion budget plan they've muscled through the Senate to lay the groundwork.

The Senate on Thursday narrowly approved the budget plan, methodically working through a pack of amendments and rebuffing Democrats' successive attempts to reshape the blueprint and derail the tax cuts. The final vote was 51-49 with deficit hawk Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky the lone opposing GOP vote.

The White House said in a statement that Trump "applauds the Senate for passing its FY 2018 Budget Resolution today and taking an important step in advancing the Administration's pro-growth and pro-jobs legislative agenda."

It won't be nearly as easy with the complex plan to bring steep tax cuts, especially for corporations, and overhaul a tax system which has divided House Republicans on regional fault lines.

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