Republicans worry party won't do enough to address costs before midterms

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Republicans worry party won’t do enough to address costs before midterms

Some Senate Republicans are warning that the party is not doing enough to address affordability entering the midterm elections, with hopes of passing more big-ticket items this year quickly fading away.

Legislating has been difficult in this Congress, with fractious Republicans holding only a narrow majority, and is only expected to slow further in an election year. And President Trump last week poured cold water on the possibility of a second massive, GOP-only bill, saying in an interview that “we’ve gotten everything passed that we need.”

Some in the party think that’s a mistake — and worry the GOP does not have an ambitious enough legislative agenda for the rest of the year aimed at driving down costs, which is expected to be a top issue for voters in November.

“We’re not going to win the midterm by going to the American people and saying, ‘Look, we passed 11 out of 12 appropriations bills and we confirmed all of President Trump’s nominees,’” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said. ”The American people don’t care. That’s not what, when moms and dads lie down to sleep at night and can’t — that’s not what they’re worried about. They’re worried about the cost of living. … In their minds, they’re tired of selling blood plasma to go grocery shopping.”

Kennedy has been a leading voice in favor of Republicans taking a second crack at a bill via budget reconciliation — a process that allows them to bypass the filibuster and pass a bill without any Democratic votes — to deal with items they weren’t able to fit into their previous reconciliation measure, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“I still think that what we ought to be doing is true reconciliation. … I really think that that’s what we ought to be focused on right now,” he continued. “I just want to do something. Doing nothing is very hard.”

The 2026 agenda, however, is shaping up to be far different than last year’s, which saw the upper chamber spend vastly more time in session than usual as it ushered through some of Trump’s top priorities.

Instead, the calendar allots significantly more time for lawmakers to spend in their home states.

This means the congressional to-do list is far less ambitious and is headlined by must-pass items, including government funding, the farm bill and the annual National Defense Authorization Act.

“Are we doing enough? We’re not doing anything,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who is running to become the next governor of Alabama. “Everybody’s working on getting elected.”

Trump’s comments dismissing a second bill marked a blow for congressional Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who’s been meeting with committee chairs as recently as last month about a possible path forward.

And getting bills through Congress outside the reconciliation process has proved exceedingly difficult. In the House, Johnson can afford to lose only one GOP vote on any party-line package, and in the Senate, deepening distrust and divisions between Republicans and Democrats have made the minority party increasingly leery about helping push legislation over the 60-vote threshold.

That still has not dissuaded some Republicans from wanting to give it a go.

“I see it as a missed opportunity,” one Senate GOP member said, pointing to the “rare” chances the party has had in a unified government.

Top Republicans, though, are turning their attention more to selling the legislation they’ve already passed, particularly Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Republicans have spent months worrying they weren’t able to effectively communicate the party’s signature legislative achievement to voters, especially as a historic government shutdown and endless fights over documents related to Jeffrey Epstein stole the spotlight.

With tax filing season near and November on the horizon, Republicans believe it is imperative to sell the bill they already passed — which made many of the 2017 tax cuts permanent.

“I am more focused on selling what we do have, which is huge,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who is up for reelection in the fall. “It’s a matter of focusing on that and getting our entire team working in the right direction to focus on the successes we’ve already had in the last year.”

One Senate GOP aide noted that upward of 16 Senate Republicans held events focused on that sales job during January, kicking off what they expect will be a months-long effort.

Additionally, some in the party are worried an attempt to pass a second bill would only complicate the party’s messaging and further drown out what they continue to believe is something they can run on throughout the year.

There’s also no consensus about what to include in a second partisan package.

There had been chatter about a uniparty fix on health care after the failed negotiations with Democrats over a possible extension of the enhanced ObamaCare subsidies that expired at the end of last year.

“We have to have a clear purpose that we’re trying to accomplish that helps the American people, and there’s not a clearly defined purpose right now to say this is what it would do and it could actually work through the parliamentarian process,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a member of GOP leadership. “At times, it gets confused. People are pursuing the tool rather than the task.”

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) name-checked items related to defense and housing authority that could garner inclusion, adding that rumors about the death of a second reconciliation bill have been “greatly exaggerated.”

That would be welcomed by Kennedy and others.

“I’m not saying those bills aren’t important,” Kennedy said about the National Defense Authorization Act and farm bill. “I’m just saying that you can multitask, and we ought to be passing some bills that are important to the American people.

“I can cite your statistics about inflation and GDP growth and macroeconomics and microeconomics, and how many economists can dance on the head of a pen. I can do all that,” he continued. “But what you’re basically arguing to people is: Don’t believe your own lying checkbooks. It’s their checkbooks. They’re looking at it. They don’t like what they see, so you’ve got to deal with it.

“That’s how you win elections,” he added. “And we’re not doing any of that.”

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