Vance leans into pitchman role for Trump’s tax law in Georgia visit

As part of this pitch to voters, Vance and other Republicans have begun referring to the package as the “working families tax cut” instead of the “big beautiful bill” moniker that Trump originally preferred.

By focusing on the tax provisions, such as eliminating taxes on tips and overtime wages and an increase in the child tax credit, Republicans are shifting their messaging away from provisions that Democrats have highlighted, including cuts to health care and food assistance, that have led to the bill’s unpopularity.

“We believe that you want to keep more of your hard-earned money, and we believe that if you’re busting your rear end every single day, the government ought to make it easier for you and not harder for you,” the vice president said.

Earlier on Thursday, Vance addressed Republican National Committee members in Atlanta, where he again focused much of his speech on attacking Ossoff.

Thursday’s trip comes at a volatile moment in Georgia politics. Battle lines are already forming in the GOP primary contest to decide who will taken on Ossoff next fall.

Democrats have vowed to make the bill’s steep rollbacks to food stamps, Medicaid and other public health programs central to next year’s midterm elections. They are highlighting its impact on rural hospitals, including one in Claxton that warned this week it could close without changes to the law.

Leaders at Evans Memorial Hospital in Claxton said the facility is facing a $3.3 million budget shortfall and could soon close its intensive care unit to cope with the new law’s Medicaid cuts.

“Georgians don’t support defunding hospitals and nursing homes and throwing 100,000 people off their health care in order to cut taxes for the wealthiest people in the country,” Ossoff said Thursday morning at an event of his own. “The vice president is here on a damage control mission to try to defend this policy, but Georgians have already turned against this policy.”

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

And DNC chair Ken Martin called the measure a “big budget betrayal” that leaves everyday Georgians suffering.

“Donald Trump is sending his most loyal puppet down to Georgia in a desperate attempt to salvage the wreckage from Republicans’ disastrous, deeply unpopular budget scam,” Martin said in a news release.

Republicans say the sweeping tax and spending package fulfills Trump’s campaign promises: eliminating income taxes on tips, gutting clean energy incentives, extending roughly $3.8 trillion in tax cuts, and increasing spending on border security and public safety.

Vance, positioning himself for a potential 2028 bid, has emerged as the law’s most visible champion.

Early polls show the law faces a skeptical audience. A July survey by Public Policy Polling found 52% of Georgia voters said they would be less likely to support it after hearing Democratic messaging about its cuts. The Senate GOP is pouring $5 million into an ad blitz to boost the measure — and slam Ossoff for voting against it.

The trip marks Vance’s second to Georgia since he and Trump carried the state in November. It’s the first trip to Fayette County — about 25 miles south of Atlanta — by a sitting vice president since Dan Quayle visited a local high school in 1992.

But a steady stream of White House officials have visited the 3rd District during Trump’s second term, which coincides with the freshman term of U.S. Rep. Brian Jack, the Peachtree City native who served as Trump’s political director during his first stint as president. The district stretches across west Georgia from Bremen to Columbus and includes Peachtree City, Newnan and LaGrange.

Trump and Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler have both visited the district in recent months. Loeffler and Environmental Protection Agency Director Lee Zeldin joined Vance in Peachtree City on Thursday.

Staff writer Zach Hansen contributed to this report.