The Republican Party’s biggest win since Donald Trump took office was the passage of their highly regressive tax bill. When the bill passed, polling showed that only around a dismal one-third of Americans approved. Since then, the GOP donors have been spending millions to sell a plan that they claimed sold itself.
The plan has not sold itself.
Bloomberg reported on Monday that Republicans are struggling to pitch their bill to voters as midterm elections loom. While approval has increased since December, it still remains below 50 percent. And in a survey by Quinnipiac in March, respondents ranked taxes as the least important of five issues for the upcoming midterms. In the infamous recent Pennsylvania special election, Republican Rick Saccone, who touted the GOP tax bill, ended up losing in a district that Trump won by 20 points.
Yet Republicans are still leaning hard into the issue. As Texas Rep. Mike Conway told Bloomberg, “We’re going to have to continue to brag on it all year.” House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady emphasized that taxes will “be the defining question in November. Do you want to go back to the bad old days where Washington took more of what you earned?”
Republicans are going to throw more money and air time to try to make their tax bill popular. But so far, at least, voters have somehow figured out that a giveaway to wealthy corporations is not in their best interests.