The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion What exactly are Republicans running on?

Columnist|
May 7, 2018 at 1:30 p.m. EDT
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) pauses as he speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Reuters reports:

The most vulnerable Republican incumbents in the tightest congressional races in the November elections are talking less and less about the tax cuts on Twitter and Facebook, on their campaign and congressional websites and in digital ads, the vital tools of a modern election campaign, a Reuters analysis of their online utterances shows.
All told, the number of tax messages has fallen by 44 percent since January. For several congressmen in tough reelection fights, Steve Knight in California, Jason Lewis in Minnesota, and Don Bacon in Nebraska, messaging is down much more — as much as 72 percent.

The same thing happened in the Pennsylvania 18th special election won by Democrat Conor Lamb. In mid-March, Politico reported, “For the weeks of Feb. 4 and Feb. 11, roughly two-thirds of the broadcast television ads from [Republican Rick] Saccone’s campaign, the Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC and the National Republican Congressional Committee mentioned taxes … For the week of Feb. 18, that dropped to 36 percent, and to 14 percent the week after. Since the beginning of March, tax ads have been essentially nonexistent.”

Reluctance to talk about House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s signature achievement suggests that it’s a political dud, in part because the economy is not markedly different from what it was when President Trump was elected.

The president has a tendency to claim credit where credit is not due — particularly when it comes to business deals. (Video: Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

The unemployment rate dropped in April to 3.9 percent based on about 236,000 fewer people looking for a job, with only 164,000 jobs created, much less than the number needed to sustain new workers. Wages rose only 2.6 percent, below expectations. With inflation running at 2 percent, workers are barely keeping up. Jim Tankersley of the New York Times explained on “PBS NewsHour” on Friday:

There’s no economic theory that says, when you cut taxes, people get big bonus checks from their employers. It’s just a thing that happened that sort of snowballed, in part because companies got wise that the president and Republicans would amplify.
Oh, look at this great company that is giving out bonuses based on the tax cuts. It was sort of a feedback loop. But that ended after a couple of months. And workers who got that bonus, which, again, is fantastic — and more money in people’s pockets is always good — in this case, they’re not seeing a sustained, well, next year, I’m going to get a bonus. And the wage hikes haven’t really followed.

Quite aside from whether the tax cut will ever produce the results Republicans promised, Republicans running in the midterms have a fundamental problem: What are they running on? Senate incumbents, I suppose, can brag to a certain segment of the base that they confirmed conservative judges. The House hasn’t even done that. Neither can the House show off an immigration fix, an infrastructure plan, or a new and improved health-care plan — nor do Republicans have coherent plans as to how to accomplish any of those things. They seem reduced to arguing that Democrats will impeach Trump — in contrast to the Republicans who have failed to exercise vigorous oversight, smeared the FBI and the Justice Department, and egged Trump on to cancel the Iran deal (with no backup plan).

That may sound farcical, but the lack of tangible accomplishments or a viable agenda going forward is as much of a burden on Republicans as is Trump’s unpopularity. Unfortunately, congressional Republicans seem to have no plans to tackle any other major issue this year. Voters might consider voting for Democrats who pledge to do something on infrastructure and health care and to uphold their constitutional role. I mean, what do voters have to lose?