The No. 1 goal for the Trump administration and congressional Republicans must be to pass what I would call the Tax Cuts, Jobs and Affordability Act. President Donald J. Trump has described it as “one big, beautiful bill.”
A powerful economic bill must be the Republicans’ top priority, because it is key to the 2026 election. We know the economy, inflation and affordability are by far the American people’s biggest concerns. The southern border and illegal immigration are also important — and additional border security measures should be included in the bill. But they are still second to the economy. Furthermore, the president can get a fair amount done on illegal immigration and the border without an act of Congress (for instance, enforcing laws the Biden administration is currently ignoring).
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Quick timing is vital. It takes time for new laws to impact the everyday lives of people.
Republicans should have learned this lesson twice: First with President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and then with President Trump in 2017.
When Reagan got his three-year tax cuts through the Congress in the summer of 1981, he allowed it to be written so the tax cuts would only kick in in 1983. The economic result was no real stimulus in 1982. The political result was the House Republicans lost 26 seats in the 1982 off-year election.
Similarly, in 2017, the congressional leaders convinced newly-elected President Trump that they could not get to the tax cuts until they abolished Obamacare. They spent months focusing on Obamacare — and failed to repeal it.
The lost months meant that the Trump tax cuts only passed in December 2017. The result was little economic impact in 2018. House Republicans lost 40 seats that year. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) then unleashed hell on the Trump administration. Tearing up his State of the Union speech and impeaching him twice were mere opening volleys. The ensuing investigations, harassment and blocked actions made the last two years of the first Trump presidency incredibly difficult.
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Now, Republicans face their third opportunity to develop a booming economy which would give them a fighting chance to keep the House in 2026.
Getting to a boom by the summer of 2026 while people are considering their voting intentions requires passing the “Tax Cuts, Jobs and Affordability Act” by the Fourth of July 2025.
When the bill reaches its final form, it will have to be explained and sold to the American people. This will take several months, so the essence of the bill must be known by early March. Then Trump will have to undertake a two-and-a-half-month campaign with a dozen or more mass rallies to explain the bill to the American people. His appeal will be strong enough to get them to call their House and Senate members and demand they vote for the bill.
When you have a strong enough economic bill, you can get a number of Democrats to vote for it despite their party. Start with the 12 Democrats in districts Trump carried. Then go to the districts where he was within 5 percentage points. With Reagan’s tax cuts and our 1996 welfare reform bill, pressure from back home moved people who would not have voted with us if they thought they had a choice. They simply could not explain a “no” vote to their constituents.
While liberals run the country from the Washington bureaucracy out to the grassroots, conservatives run the country by arousing the grassroots to overwhelm the resistance of Washington.
Educating, exciting and recruiting the American people takes time. President Reagan could give an address from the Oval Office, and the only three networks which existed would cover it. He could really get the country’s attention. In today’s fractured mass communications ecosystem, it takes more time and effort to attract attention.
Fortunately, Trump is a master of large town hall rallies. If he spends nearly three months going into key districts, he will almost certainly create a grassroots movement. If all the talk show hosts, podcasters, columnists and others who support Trump’s goals join him in educating and exciting the American people, the pressure to pass the Tax Cuts, Jobs and Affordability Act will become overwhelming.
A single “big, beautiful bill” is the best way to get the economy moving — and get the House to remain Republican. It must be passed before July 4. If it could meet Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) goal of Memorial Day — even better.
Let your House and Senate members know you want a better economy now — and you expect them to deliver it now.
Newt Gingrich is the former Speaker of the House. For more commentary from Newt Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com. Also, subscribe to the Newt’s World podcast. This was republished from Gingrich360.com with permission.
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