Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R., La.), Whip Tom Emmer (R., Minn.), and House GOP Secretary Lisa McClain (R., Mich.) spent part of their Tax Day alongside dozens of their GOP colleagues making the case that President Donald Trump’s economic agenda is the “relief” that Americans need after four years of Bidenomics.

“This filing season, three things are happening,” Johnson explained. “Lower taxes, bigger refunds, and more money in the pockets of hardworking Americans. We did that intentionally, and that’s exactly what’s happening.”

One of the biggest wins of the Working Families Tax Cuts (WFTC), Johnson noted, is that “it is permanent.” Johnson called that a “big thing” for small businesses. 

“In the past 40 years, since the administration of Ronald Reagan, this country has only seen temporary tax cuts, but because of the extraordinary leadership” of President Donald Trump and from House and Senate Republicans, “we did it,” Johnson said.

While the process took Republicans over two years, Johnson made it sound simple when explaining it. “We started by following a straightforward approach: simplify the tax code, reduce the tax burden on families, and advance a policy agenda that rewards hard work and puts working and middle class families first.” 

“We can boil the strategy down to just two words,” he said: “common sense…Democrats, by stark contrast, have adopted…crazy.”

Scalise added that “for the first time in a long time, Americans are celebrating April 15…because American families are getting money back today. Their government is finally delivering for them…end the fraud in Washington and give the money back to the people.”

The House GOP’s Majority Leader has worked to show his colleagues firsthand the benefits that the WFTC has had for American energy; he spoke about taking his colleagues to a Louisiana oil rig in the Gulf of America that is producing American-made energy.

Despite the GOP’s historically narrow majorities, “failure was never an option,” Emmer said. “The American people elected a Republican House, a Republican Senate, and President Donald J. Trump with a mandate,” which was in part to lower cost of living for Americans.

“President Trump and Republicans were handed an economy in ruin, and for the last 15 months we’ve worked hard to build it back, brick by brick,” he said, criticizing Trump’s predecessor, President Joe Biden. Emmer said that the WFTC is “cornerstone” of that agenda. 

“Every single Democrat, it needs to be emphasized, voted against this tax relief, and voted to increase the taxes on all Americans,” Emmer, a former Chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), said, “despite the media and Democrats fighting us every step of the way.”

McClain, who kicked the event off, painted a bleak portrait of the economy that the unified GOP government inherited in January 2025. “Families watched prices skyrocket, gas prices went up, grocery prices went up, rent prices went up,” she said.

“You know what Republicans did? We said enough. We passe the Working Families Tax Cuts because we actually believe if you work hard, you actually are better stewards of your dollars than the United States government.” McClain, like the other GOP leaders, emphasized that “every single Democrat voted to raise your taxes.”

The House Republican leaders were flanked both by Americans who benefitted from the policies like no taxes on tips, no taxes on overtime, an expanded child tax credit, and more, as well as by some of the lawmakers who helped make the WFTC a reality.

Rep. Jason Smith (R., Mo.) was instrumental in crafting the bill, as Chair of the Ways and Means Committee. Smith noted that around half of Americans claimed at least one of the new benefits provided by the WFTC.

Smith added that lawmakers benefitted from “going out to real America. We went to Petersburg, West Virginia to a lumber yard, we to a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma, we went to a factory in Peachtree City, Georgia. These working Americans gave us the ideas to give immediate relief to workers, families, farmers, and small businesses across this country.”