Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) encouraged President-elect Trump and Republicans to pass tax cuts as part of a single wide-ranging reconciliation bill, arguing that the GOP’s narrow House majority hinges on the U.S. economy's performance.
In a Wednesday interview with The Hill, Gingrich called for “one big, beautiful bill” and drew parallels between the timing of tax cuts and the electoral success of the GOP in previous Congresses.
“In 1981, Reagan passed the huge tax cut. I was part of it as a junior congressman. But they didn't come into effect till 1983. So in 1982, we had no economic advantages, and we lost 26 seats,” Gingrich said.
A lack of urgency on tax cuts and a focus on repealing the Affordable Care Act lost the GOP 40 congressional seats in 2018, Gingrich argued.
“We can't win by defending the margin. We have to grow the margin,” he said. “There are at least 12 seats that have Democrats that Trump carried, and so we have to go out. We have to plan for [2026] to have a booming economy, or we have no hope.”
Republicans are not unified on how they want to pursue their agenda in Congress, which spans the issues of border security, the extension of tax cuts, and increasing fossil fuel production.
The decision they make could have a major impact on the 2026 midterm elections, in which Republicans will have to defend a narrow House majority and make in-roads in the Senate.
"I am confident the two and a half months of explaining tax cuts, affordability, job creation, you'll have a bill that will sail through the House and Senate. But you can't do it twice," Gingrich said.
He added the bill must be passed and signed by Independence Day to boost Republicans during the midterms.
Trump is set to meet with Senate Republicans on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the path ahead.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) floated a plan at the end of last year to split the agenda up into two different bills, with the first focusing on energy policy and border security, and the second focusing on tax changes.
The budget reconciliation process would allow Republicans to pass major policy bills without Democratic support.
But there are doubts about the viability of passing two reconciliation bills in a single year — especially among tax writers on the House Ways and Means Committee, who argued for doing tax cuts first.
While House tax writers said they wanted to hear from Trump about how to proceed, Trump hasn’t taken a hard stance, saying that he would prefer doing a single bill but is also open to doing two.
The Trump tax cuts passed in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) did grow the economy by 0.3 percent in the year after they were passed, according to the Congressional Budget Office. To pay for themselves, they would have needed to grow the economy by 6.7 percent, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
Judy Kurtz contributed.
