House Speaker Kevin McCarthy desperately needs to prove that he can lead, that he can do big policy stuff with his majority. He needs some achievement to take to voters nationally that doesn’t revolve around investigating Hunter Biden’s dick pics. Leadership thought they had it in a tax package, including tax cuts for wealthy corporations and maybe even some help for regular people. Tax cuts should be a bulletproof strategy for uniting his team, because they are Republicans.
But it’s not working, and this time the extremists aren’t to blame. It’s those supposed moderates, largely the 18 first-termers who are in districts that went for Joe Biden in 2020. But it’s not because they want to preserve the progressive, climate change-fighting tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act. It’s not because they think corporations really should be chipping into the national treasury. It’s because they want cuts for wealthy homeowners in their districts.