ICYMI: McLaughlin: A Health Care Tax Hike Poses the Greatest Midterm Threat to the GOP

Longtime Pollster for the President Warns of Political Consequences Should Congress Not Extend Enhanced Premium Tax Credits for Hardworking Americans

A new opinion piece in Townhall from nationally recognized Republican pollster, John McLaughlin, emphasizes the likely political consequences for the GOP if Congress fails to preserve key health care tax credits for millions of Americans set to expire at the end of the year.

Enhanced Premium Tax Credits (PTCs) help lower plan costs for eligible Americans who buy their own health care insurance through the individual health insurance marketplace. These health care tax credits are set to expire at the end of this year, teeing up a potential tax hike on more than 24 million working-class Americans – and a potential political catastrophe for the GOP – if Congress does not act.

“Allowing these enhanced PTCs to expire would effectively amount to a tax increase, resulting in millions of Americans losing their health care and health care costs spiking dramatically,” said McLaughin. “The first effects of this tax hike will start to be felt before the tax credits expire, as rates will begin to be published in September, elevating the urgency for a solution.”

Polling by McLaughlin & Associates in partnership with Americans for a Balanced Budget found four out of five voters (83 percent) overwhelmingly support preserving these vital tax credits – and that Americans are more likely to support candidates for U.S. Senate or Congress who voted to preserve these credits. Among Republicans and Trump voters, that figure is nearly identical at 76 percent and 73 percent, respectively.

“Our MAGA voters need this tax credit,” McLaughlin wrote, “Going into next year’s midterm elections, we can’t afford to lose the votes of these working MAGA voters. We need them to come back out to the polls.”

“The bottom line is this,” McLaughlin concludes. “Preserving the health care tax credit should be a top legislative priority for Congress this fall. Congress secured a historic victory for President Trump and the American people by passing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). Allowing the enhanced premium tax credits to expire and health care prices to spike would undermine the full promise of this incredible win.”

Read the full McLaughlin & Associates memo from the survey HERE.

Read the full op-ed in Townhall HERE.