The conservative activist class has grown disenchanted with tax cuts, putting them at odds with Republicans who are still trying to make the cuts in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” the cornerstone of their midterm messaging campaign.
Scott Pressler, a conservative organizer with millions of followers, delivered that message bluntly in comments to GOP House members in the Republican Study Committee last week while advocating for a bill to strengthen voter ID and registration requirements.
“If the leadership is only going to run on milquetoast tax cuts, you are going to lose this November,” Pressler said.
That was a reference to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that President Trump signed into law last year, which Republicans have tried to rebrand as the Working Families Tax Cut. The bill made permanent many of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and added new cuts to taxes on tips, overtime, car loans, and for seniors.
And it is a pretty big contrast with the message from Republican leaders who repeatedly tout the tax cut provisions in the major law, while expressing frustration that their message is not breaking through.
“I say this every time I'm up here. One of these times, it's going to get covered by y'all,” Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) said in a press conference earlier this month. “Republicans voted to cut taxes for working families to keep more money in your pockets. Democrats again voted against that.”
Some of the dismissal of the tax cuts is an expression of anxiety about the midterm elections which are looking to be very tough for House Republicans.
Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform and perhaps the biggest tax cut evangelist, told me in a phone interview that he was not too bothered by Pressler’s comments.
“I do not take it as an affront to the tax issue for someone to say there are other issues. They are important,” Norquist said, acknowledging that tax cuts alone may not be enough to get the extra percentage points needed to win close elections.
But he said that tax cuts are foundational to GOP electoral victories, not a distraction: “The tax issue is central to the Republican Party being the majority party.”
And as for calling the tax cuts "milquetoast?"
“That would be a criticism that they weren't big enough,” he said. “I guess I'm always up for people who go, gee, I should have asked for more.”
“But this is a huge, amazing success, not just politically, with a margin as narrow as we had,” Norquist added.
There are serious ideological divisions on the right that are challenging the Republican party on taxes, though.
Populist former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, for instance, has advocated raising taxes on the wealthy — and increasing the top income tax rate was even considered by Republicans as they were crafting their tax cut bill last year. Fiscal hawks, too, have questioned the wisdom of cutting taxes without cutting government spending significantly more than the GOP already did in the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
David Williams, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, told me it was “unfortunate” that anyone on the right would downplay the tax cuts.
“This was a major achievement by the Republican Party and Donald Trump,” Williams said, recognizing the populist uprising in the party. “Quite frankly, it wouldn't have happened without someone like [Sen.] Mitch McConnell, and now Mitch McConnell is not very well liked by populist Republicans. I don't know why … He was able to get through Donald Trump's key piece of legislation, the 2017 tax reform.”
There’s a generational frustration bubbling up, too, about tax cuts that benefit seniors. Voter participation rates are highest among older Americans.
A January post from the Senate Republicans account that touted the tax cut megabill including a $6,000 exemption for seniors got dragged by younger people on social media, as the New York Post reported. American Moment, the MAGA-world upstart that was deeply connected to staffing the second Trump administration, responded: “Total boomer luxury communism.”
That sentiment was also put on display last week when Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who is running for governor of South Carolina, promoted her proposal to eliminate taxes on boat loan interest. She argued that it would protect an industry that “supports 27,100+ jobs statewide.”
Reason reporter Christian Britschgi quipped: “Of all the boomer subsidies, this one is the most offensive.”
Norquist, though, had a different take: “What Mae West said about sex is true about tax cuts: All tax cuts are good tax cuts, even the bad ones.”
Norquist said that he would prefer to always pursue the most pro-growth tax cuts first, and then go for others later. “But you build a tax cut based on how you get the votes.”
Williams pointed out that many people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s will be getting a tax cut, too, which could help them financially.
Tax cut advocates are hoping that maybe the narratives about the tax cuts and concerns about the GOP’s “affordability” arguments will subside after Americans start getting their tax refunds over the next few months.
“The proof is in the pudding. And if there really is an increase in refunds, I think that is a message that will resonate with people,” Williams said.
