Republicans, fearing voter anger about costs, clash over economic strategy

Republicans are clashing over how to improve their weak polling numbers on the economy less than two months before Election Day, fearing that voter anger over high costs could sink GOP candidates in November.

The boldest proposal, President Trump’s pledge to give every U.S. adult $5,000 if Republicans win the midterm election, has already drawn strong pushback from Republicans across the political spectrum.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) says he would support the idea if the $5,000 payout is structured as a tax refund, but he warned that it should only go to people who work and pay taxes.

“I think we should be incentivizing work. I don’t think we should be paying people that are not working,” he argued.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), however, warned it would be “extraordinarily costly” and questioned Trump’s idea of paying out thousands of dollars to people who don’t have financial need.

Some Republicans are pushing for quick action on other legislation to address costs, such as passing the stalled farm bill or capping credit card fees, but there’s little time to do anything before Election Day.

A Senate Republican strategist said there’s growing alarm among Republicans in Congress that the economic picture is not going to improve between now and Election Day, setting off a scramble among GOP candidates to pitch more ideas to bring down costs.

“Affordability and the war in Iran are going to continue on. They’re tied to each other. As long as the war in Iran continues, we will have high energy prices that will bleed over to consumers,” the strategist warned. “It just is a bad recipe.”

But getting the party on the same page about how to respond to the crisis has been a difficult task.

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), who is facing a surprisingly tough challenge from Democrat megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton, is pushing his Credit Card Competition Bill, which he says would cut fuel and grocery prices by 2 or 3 percent by putting an end to what he calls the Visa-Mastercard “duopoly.”

Marshall says his bill, which Trump endorsed during the midterm convention in Dallas last week, would save Americans $1,200 a year.

“We’ll cut out-of-control credit card swipe fees, saving the average family at least $1,200 per year,” Trump declared on Wednesday.

But the proposal is facing stiff opposition from fellow Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee, according to a source familiar with the internal Senate dynamic.

The Senate is scheduled to be in session for only three more weeks before senators leave Washington again for the election and the House is planning only one week of work before lawmakers return to the campaign trail.

The average price of gasoline nationwide, which hit $4.30 a gallon on Friday, is sparking alarm among GOP candidates.

“That’s a problem,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who is up for re-election and faces a tougher challenge than expected, according to recent Democratic polling.

“People need to bring the price of gas down. We all know that and we’re going to do everything we can to see that that happens,” he said.

Rounds said gas prices could come down 30 percents per gallon if Congress passed legislation to permanently allow the sale of gasoline blended with higher amounts of ethanol — E15 — nationwide.

He noted the E15 provision in the farm bill, which Senate Republicans are hoping to advance out of the Agriculture Committee once Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) returns to work from a protracted absence.

But Republicans from oil-producing states such as Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, which have mid-size refineries, have pushed back against allowing more E15 blended fuel onto the market.

Trump’s efforts to intervene in the economy has also provoked dissention on Capitol Hill, especially his decision to allow the import of 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef to reduce ground beef prices at the grocery store.

That move sparked an angry backlash from GOP senators from farm and ranching states who argued that flooding the market with cheaper imports would undercut cattlemen at a time when the farm economy is struggling to cope with high fuel costs and low commodity prices.

“Every time the government micromanages the economy, the consumer suffers,” warned Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who dismissed some of Trump’s interventions as “gimmicks.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s intervention in the bond market to lower yields and consumer borrowing costs has gotten a skeptical response from some Republicans on Capitol Hill.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to its highest level in three years after the Treasury Department announced it would repurchase $6 billion in 10- to 20-year government bonds, a market reaction that was interpreted as a rebuke from investors.

There are other worrisome signals that the country’s economic picture won’t improve substantially by Election Day.

The Consumer Price Index report released Friday showed that inflation is rising at an annual rate of 3.4 percent, well above the Federal Reserve’s target and faster than the rate of annual wage growth, which stands at 3.1 percent last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Meanwhile, the price of oil is hovering around $100 a barrel after rising by nearly 10 percent last week amid escalating strikes between U.S. and Iranian forces.

An Economist/YouGov poll of 1,536 adults conducted from Aug. 21 to Aug. 24 found that only 28 percent of Americans are satisfied with the economy while 64 percent are dissatisfied.

The poll showed that Democrats have a 7-point lead over Republicans on the question of which party does a better job on economic issues. It found 39 percent of Americans think the Democratic Party is stronger on the economy while 32 percent think Republicans are better on that issue.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who has repeatedly expressed concern over the impact of high gas prices on his constituents, has introduced a bill to suspend the 18-cent federal gas tax, something Trump said he supported earlier this year.

But the idea has gotten slapped down by other Republican senators.

“I hate taxes, I wish that there weren’t a gas tax but I also like driving on the road. It’s a huge amount of money that just quits coming in,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said in May, when Hawley unveiled his bill.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has questioned how to make up any shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund created by suspending the federal gas tax and voiced preference instead for reopening the Strait of Hormuz to shipping traffic.

Hawley in July also introduced legislation to send rebate checks to working Americans that would provide at least $600 per adult and dependent child.

He notes that the United States was projected to collect over $150 billion tariff revenue in 2025 alone.

But that proposal has also largely stalled because of Republican opposition in the Senate.

Several Republicans have raised concerns about the $40 trillion national debt, which is being blamed for rising Treasury yields and upward pressure on mortgage rates.

They argue money from Trump’s tariff regime should go toward reducing the annual federal deficit, which is projected to exceed $2 trillion in fiscal year 2026.