Donald Trump’s landslide victory in the recent election brought with it Republican control of both Houses of Congress. However, if you pay close attention to the social media feeds of Republican Members of Congress, or read the school newspapers of Capitol Hill, like The
Hill, Politico and Roll Call, you will likely see the same trend we’ve seen: Republicans complaining about how difficult it will be to pass President Donald Trump’s signature policies.
Rep. Vern Buchanan, of my home state of Florida, the vice chair of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, said he’s not sold on the idea of reclassifying how tips are taxed when Trump first floated the idea, citing the growing national debt.
“You’ve just got to be careful with it. We’re running these trillion-dollar deficits. Got to be careful with all of this.,” Buchanan said. “I want to be sensitive, because they work hard. And obviously a big part of their earnings is tips. All these programs sound good; everybody likes to pay less taxes. But we got to pay the bills.”
Of course, the issue that Rep. Buchanan (an otherwise good man) skipped over is that the federal government doesn’t have a tax shortage problem, it has an overspending problem, and Congress is responsible for it because Congress controls the purse strings.
There are similar complaints about other Trump policies that poll upwards of 70% and were key to his victory, but somehow seem like such a heavy lift to the new GOP majority.
Conservatives and MAGA Movement activists shouldn’t buy these complaints or let the incoming GOP leadership get away with playing small ball when the new Congress goes to work in January 2025.
As our friend Rick Manning, President of Americans for Limited Government explained in a recent column in the organization’s must-read Daily Torch, the new Republican majority may have an ephemeral grip on power:
The political reality in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives is that the majority margin is unstable and might not exist in October 2025 if resignations, illness or even naturally occurring deaths winnow their current 220-to-215 majority. As of now, due to presidential appointments ravaging the House majority, the count at the beginning of the upcoming Congress is expected to be as thin as one vote at 216 to 215.
This begs the question whether the GOP leadership can hold some of the weaker links in that majority together on votes that should be no brainers, like ending the taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security, bolstering border security, restoring sane energy policy by ending Green New Deal tax laws implemented under the Inflation Reduction Act, ending the expansion of the Internal Revenue Service by 87,000 agents, and reducing the size of the federal workforce to name a few of the more obvious ones.
Our view is that Republican leaders must go big on the Trump agenda, or they will be sent home.
This means that their first order of business should be to pass a “budget reconciliation bill” that avoids a Democrat filibuster in the Senate and encompasses all of Trump’s major policy initiatives, especially those aimed at reinvigorating private sector growth.
As Mr. Manning observed:
From a political and economic standpoint, it is in every Republican’s interest that the economy be thriving when they come up for re-election in 2026. Creating tax uncertainty by failing to extend the first-term Trump tax cuts for the corporations who the president will be trying to incentivize to invest in growing America’s industrial and resource-development base undermines the Trump economic-growth plan.
It would also be very unwise to not immediately keep President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to end the taxes on tips and overtime. The Social Security tax issue may need to be part of a separate, independent bi-partisan deal, but it would be a slap in the face to those hourly wage and tip workers to not deliver on a promise that directly and immediately impacts their take home pay.
Members of the House of Representatives are up for election every two years, meaning Members, especially new ones, have barely settled into their offices before they must start campaigning for reelection.
We think the best way to keep the Republican majority is to start the new year by letting GOP leaders know that their reelection depends upon delivering on the Trump agenda, and that we will brook no stalling or going squishy on cutting taxes, cutting spending, securing the border and removing the yoke of Democrat regulation from American job creators and energy producers.
2024 Election
Trump cabinet
MAGA Agenda
Speaker Mike Johnson
Senator John Thune
Republican House Majority
Republican Senate Majority
Ways and Means Committee
National Debt
Government Spending
Tax on tips
Budget reconciliation
Trump tax cuts
Social security benefits tax
Comentários