I was somewhat taken aback, the other day, when I asked a Republican operative—a man who has spent years working for G.O.P. leaders on Capitol Hill—what was on his mind. Right away, he said the 2026 midterms. More specifically, he was worried that Republicans in Congress would have little to show voters next fall. The president’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act would pass, few doubt, in one form or another. But he worried that the main selling point of the party’s signature megabill—maintaining most people’s tax rates at the same level they’ve been for the past eight years—wasn’t exactly the most inspiring, or even compelling, political agenda.