Largely unnoticed alongside a seemingly unending stream of scandals and crises, Republicans have pushed forward a second round of tax cuts. The legislation has little chance of passing the Senate, and so is more a messaging maneuver than a serious attempt at reform. But if the tax bills that will be voted on in the House on Friday are intended to mobilize midterm voters, the plan is profoundly ill-conceived.
With additional tax cuts, Republicans are throwing good money after bad. An analysis of last year's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) indicated that it would do little to help Republicans in the midterms. As the campaign season has unfolded, more and more evidence has helped to confirm this prediction. An internal GOP poll commissioned by the Republican National Committee and obtained by Bloomberg News this week found a significant number of voters believed President Trump's tax overhauls benefitted “large corporations and rich Americans” over “middle class families.” (That is to say, most Americans were correct about the legislation's impact.) The report's conclusion was blunt: “we've lost the messaging battle on the issue.”
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