Republicans are hoping they’ll be rewarded at the polls this fall for the tax cuts they passed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer, but it looks like voters aren’t very impressed with the legislation — if they even know about it at all.
New polling data from Politico shows that nearly half of respondents said they haven’t heard about the legislation or couldn’t explain what it did, while just 11% said they could explain what it accomplished in detail.
That lack of resonance for the legislation that provided “no tax on tips” and new tax breaks for overtime and seniors is nothing new, and a major reason Republicans have tried to rebrand the tax package as the Working Families Tax Cuts.
Nearly a year later, the rebrand doesn’t seem to have helped much. In the new Politico poll, a plurality of respondents (34%) said they thought the tax legislation provided some tax cuts overall, but those cuts conceal larger tax breaks for the wealthy. Only 14% agreed that it provided substantial tax breaks, while 21% said it provided no tax breaks and 30% said they did not know.
The poll of 2,061 U.S. adults taken July 12 to 15 showed that those who voted for Trump in 2024 are not much more impressed than voters overall. While a higher percentage said they thought the legislation provided substantial cuts (26%), about the same proportion (35%) said the tax breaks concealed larger breaks for the wealthy. Sixteen percent said there were no tax breaks, and 24% said they didn’t know.
In terms of direct benefits, just 8% of respondents said they had gotten a big financial boost from the tax cut package, while 14% said they had gotten a minor benefit. About one in three, on the other hand, said the legislation had hurt their bottom line.
More tax cuts ahead? Although Republicans seem to have gotten little political benefit for the tax package they passed last summer, some GOP lawmakers are pushing ahead on plans to provide yet more tax cuts. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise recently discussed a potential “reconciliation 4.0” bill focused on providing spending reductions by cracking down on “waste, fraud and abuse” that could also include tax cuts. (The first reconciliation bill was the tax package last summer; the second, which funded border and immigration control operations for the rest of Trump’s term in office, became law last month; and the third, which would largely provide supplemental funds for the military, is currently working its way through Congress.)
Rep. Jason Smith, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, reportedly wants to raise the pass-through deduction for qualified businesses to 25%, up from the current 20% level that was created in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in Trump’s first term.
Working with what they’ve got: In the meantime, Republicans are continuing to push the tax cut package they passed last summer, albeit under its rebranded name. “Putting more money in Americans’ pockets,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said last week. “That is the Working Families Tax Cuts at work.”
The polling data, however, suggests that Republicans may have trouble breaking through with that message, especially as more recent events dominate the narrative. For example, a majority of poll respondents — 57% — said that Trump’s war with Iran had made things more expensive for them, making it that much harder to convince people that they are better off due to tax changes from last year.
Democrats have also used the tax cut package to accuse Republicans of being more interested in helping the wealthy than middle-class voters. “Trump cuts food assistance and health care. Billionaires get another tax break,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said recently.
That sense that the GOP tax cut bill, by whatever name, was tilted toward the wealthy is backed up by both polling data and economic analysis. In the Politico poll, more than 40% of respondents earning over $100,000 a year said they had benefited from the tax cut package, about double the rate of those earning less. And more than one independent economic analysis shows that the wealthy gained more from the law than others.
A recent analysis of last year’s tax package by the Tax Policy Center shows that in 2026, “the average tax cut is generally larger for higher-income households than for lower-income households.” By one metric, “the top 20 percent of households receive almost 60 percent of the tax cuts, and the top 5 percent (with incomes over $460,000) receive over 35 percent. The bottom quintile gets an average $150 tax cut, while the top quintile gets an average tax cut of over $12,000.”
The bottom line: Republicans passed a major tax bill last summer, but voters have their doubts about its benefits for the average American and may be focused on other issues come November.