Amy Walter:
Yes, if you’re a House member, first of all, Republican House member, 60 percent of them came — have come to Congress since Trump was elected. So they know of nothing else, to Tam’s point.
The second is your choice as a Republican right now is you vote against it and you get the wrath of Donald Trump, who, as we have pointed out, went after Thom Tillis after he voted against it, has come after Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky in the House who voted against the original version there. So you can get a primary from your right with the support of the president, which is incredibly powerful and likely lose your primary, or you can vote for it.
And now we have Elon Musk, most recently today, taking to X, his platform, to say that anybody who campaigned as a fiscal conservative who voted for this, I’m going to spend money to try to defeat you in a primary.
If I were a Republican member with those two forces against me, I would still go with Trump. He is still the most powerful force in Republican politics right now. If you want to end your political career, crossing Trump is the easiest way to do that.
