Was it a shutdown delayed — or a shutdown denied?
That’s the critical question amid the chaos engulfing Congress.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy made a last-minute deal with Democrats late last month to fund the government through Nov. 17.
He then lost his speakership after a minuscule number of Republicans rebelled.
While the House looks likely to make Rep. Steve Scalise the next speaker, the GOP still has no plan to keep the government open after mid-November.
The solution is simple.
Republicans should push for as much fiscal discipline as they can.
Yet instead of simply dividing over how much to cut spending, they should ultimately unite around cutting taxes.
Tax cuts are one of the few policies that bridge the divides in the modern Republican Party.
And there’s an urgent need to act.
Donald Trump’s tax cuts are set to expire in 2025, which is just around the corner.
If Republicans don’t make them permanent, which they could easily do in a spending bill, the damage to families and the economy will be immense.
Essentially everyone is going to be hurt by the coming tax hikes.
When the Trump reforms disappear, families will find themselves paying between 1% and 4% more in federal taxes — as much as $3,000 for the typical household.
That’s a lot of money, especially after incomes fell because of President Joe Biden’s inflation.
Families still can use all the help they can get.
The last thing they need is to send even more money to the IRS.
Taxes will also get a lot more complicated.
The standard deduction will be cut in half, making it harder to fill out taxes and more likely families will need to hire accountants — another unnecessary expense at a time of already-tight budgets.
And the dreaded death tax will hit even more families, since the federal exemption will be cut in half.
Death and taxes may both be certain, but the death tax shouldn’t be.
Then there’s Main Street.
The Trump tax cuts gave small businesses historic relief, letting them deduct 20% of their business income.
This single reform helped level the playing field between Main Street and Wall Street, which matters because small businesses create two out of every three new jobs.
If this tax cut disappears, small businesses will struggle to compete, hollowing out Main Streets and communities from coast to coast.
Not all the Trump tax cuts will expire in 2025.
The relief for corporations is already permanent.
Yet that’s all the more reason for Republicans to rally around extending everything else.
Republicans could honestly say they’re fighting for families, saving them from crushing tax hikes and helping them deal with the damage of inflation.
Republicans could equally say they’re fighting for small business.
That’s a debate Democrats don’t want to have, so the GOP should force it.
If the party united around cutting taxes for small businesses and working families, Democrats would have to explain why they stand with big business against the little guy.
Democrats know they’re on the losing side of this issue.
Yet without a united Republican Party, they don’t have to worry about the tax cuts being extended.
They’re already salivating at the prospect of spending — and wasting — more of Americans’ hard-earned money.
And just in case, Democrats and their media allies are loudly arguing that extending tax cuts would worsen the spending crisis Republicans want to solve.
After all, on paper, lower taxes means less money flowing into Washington, DC.
This is misinformation, plain and simple, and Republicans should tell Americans the truth.
When families and small businesses keep more of their own money, they create jobs, spark innovation and grow the economy, leading to more tax revenue over time.
Yet when all that money just goes to Washington, it’s wasted, leading to a weaker economy and ever-more spending.
Sure enough, Democrats are about to get everything they want, in the form of higher taxes and higher spending.
Republicans, meanwhile, are set to get nothing.
As soon as the House gets a new speaker, he should rally Republicans around this winning message: Let Americans and Main Street keep more of their money.
And that’s a winning policy, as the Trump tax cuts have decisively proven, leading to lower unemployment, bigger wage hikes and better job creation.
Republicans got into this will-they-or-won’t-they-shut-down-the-government mess through division over spending cuts.
They can get out by uniting around a budget that cuts taxes.
John Tillman is CEO of the American Culture Project.
