The Republican Party’s embrace of a massive tax-and-entitlement-cutting reconciliation bill will test the party’s burgeoning popularity with working-class voters ahead of next year’s elections and for years to come.
Even some conservatives are nervous about the outcome.
“I can’t see how they couldn’t pay a price for it, certainly for 2026, and depending on who the nominee is, for 2028 as well,” said Patrick Brown, counsel for the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative pro-family think tank. “Instinctually, it doesn’t really sit well with me. It’s not how I would operationalize a newly blue-collar working-class coalition.”