GOP frustrations grow over lackluster 'big, beautiful bill' sales pitch

Source: The Hill

12/04/25 6:00 AM ET


Republicans are growing increasingly concerned they’re behind the eight ball in selling the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as the party’s top legislative achievement. Talk about the massive tax package largely evaporated after Labor Day amid high-stakes fights over releasing documents related to Jeffrey Epstein and the 43-day government shutdown. Yet even before those controversies, polls showed the GOP legislation was unpopular.

This has frustrated lawmakers who say the party needs to do more to sell its signature accomplishment, especially as Democrats hammer them on the issue of affordability. “No,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said when asked whether he was satisfied with the party’s sales job in recent months. “There’s so much good stuff in there, and I just think it’s inherently difficult to sell something that has that many moving parts and is that complex.”

“We hopefully learned a lesson that while the ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill [Act]’ doesn’t poll well by that name, if you change it to the ‘Working Family’s Tax Cuts Act,’ it polls much better,” Cornyn said, referring to the GOP’s attempted rebranding of the bill’s name dating back to near Labor Day. “So we need to go back to Marketing 101, I guess.”

The grandiose package passed just before July 4, and party leaders urged lawmakers to use the August recess to incessantly pitch the plan — with its permanent extension of the 2017 tax cuts — back home. But since then, the measure has largely gotten buried. Capitol Hill moved on swiftly upon its return after Labor Day to the looming shutdown fight that lasted nearly two months, and the prolonged battle over Epstein that helped paralyze the House at times.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5632658-gop-big-beautiful-bill-sales-pitch/