Senate Republicans have been producing advertisements for Democratic candidates in next year's congressional elections.

That's not what they think they've been doing, of course. They say they are overhauling the nation's tax code.

But as the old saying has it, be careful what you wish for, because you just may get it.

Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee on Tuesday passed, with a 12-11 party-line vote, their version of a tax-code rewrite. The vote moves the measure to the Senate floor.

If the bill passes in the Senate and eventually becomes law, there are a wealth of possible advertisements that Democratic candidates can run next year.

Here's the sort of ad that we might be seeing:

"Republicans in Congress want to give scads of money to their fat-cat friends and donors even as they make working people pay more in taxes. If you want the country club set to be better off than ever, vote for the Grand Old Party in November. If you want you and your friends and family to take back America, vote for the Democratic candidate for Congress."

And the ads would just keep on coming.

Congressional Republicans have been jonesing for something they can run on in next year's elections. Since nominal Republican Donald Trump was inaugurated as president, they've been in control of the executive branch of the federal government, of both houses of Congress, and they've even got five of the nine justices on the Supreme Court who were appointed by Republican presidents.

In other words, Republicans are driving the bus. But they haven't been able to get anything done.

Remember when the party was going to "repeal and replace" the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, frequently called "Obamacare"?

They tried and failed. And then tried again and failed again.

So they moved on to tax reform, believing that putting something - anything - on the books would put them in the driver's seat.

They'd do well to think again, as their tax plan might soon enough come to be seen as the anti-Robin Hood plan that it is, steeling from the poor and giving to those who are already richer than rich.

If the full Senate passes its version of the tax-code rewrite - and while that's looking likelier than not at present, it's not necessarily a done deal - that doesn't mean that the bill will automatically become the law of the land. There are significant differences between the House and Senate tax proposals that must still be reconciled before the bill can make its way to the president's desk for his signature.

If that happens, Republicans may well believe that they've scored themselves a big win.

Until the specifics of the tax overhaul begin to become clear to the citizenry. The corporate tax rate will be lowered permanently to 20 percent from 35 percent. Individual tax rates will also be cut, but those reductions would expire after 2025. By most estimates, the Senate bill would leave about half of the households in the nation worse off after 2027.

Another possible Democratic advertisement:

"It's often been said that a rising tide lifts all boats. True enough. And good news for those who own a boat. Republican tax policy made plain: A rising tide lifts all yachts."