Vance touts tax breaks in Pennsylvania as he makes White House's first big pitch on Trump's new law

WEST PITTSTON, Pa. — Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday made the Trump administration's first big pitch to sell the public on President Donald Trump's sweeping budget-and-policy package in the swing political turf of northeastern Pennsylvania.

The vice president, whose tiebreaking vote got the bill through the Senate, touted the legislation's tax breaks and cast Democrats as opponents of the cutting taxes because of their unanimous opposition to the legislation.

Democrats, who've decried the wide-ranging law's cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, along with other provisions, are expected to try to use it against Republicans in closely contested congressional campaigns next year that will determine control of Congress.

The GOP plans to use it to make their case as well, something the Republican vice president asked the crowd in working-class West Pittston to help with.

''Go and talk to your neighbors, go and talk to your friends, about what this bill does for America's citizens. Because we don't want to wake up in a year and a half and give the Democrats power back,'' he said.

Vance zeroes in on tax message

As Vance spoke at at an industrial machine shop, the vice president was quick to highlight the bill's new tax deductions on overtime.

''You earned that money,'' Vance said. "You ought to keep it in your pocket."

He also promoted the legislation's creation of a new children's savings program, called Trump Accounts, with a potential $1,000 deposit from the Treasury Department. Recognizing the significance of the coal and gas industry in Pennsylvania, he also talked up the ways the law seeks to promote energy extraction, such as allowing increased leasing for drilling, mining and logging on public lands, speeding up government approvals and cutting royalty rates paid by extraction companies.

''We are finally going to drill, baby drill and invest in American energy,'' Vance said. ''And I know you all love that.''

The historic legislation, which Trump signed into law earlier this month with near unanimous Republican support, includes key campaign pledges like no tax on tips but also cuts Medicaid and food stamps by $1.2 trillion.

Democrats recently held a town hall in House Speaker Mike Johnson's home state of Louisiana to denounce the legislation as a ''reverse Robin Hood — stealing from the poor to give to the rich.''

Republicans see Democrats preparing campaign message around the law

Vance's office declined to elaborate on plans for other public events around the U.S. to promote the bill. After his remarks, he visited a nearby diner where he picked up food and spoke to some of the patrons.

It's unclear how much Trump plans to promote it himself. He told NBC News last week that he would travel ''a little bit'' to help champion the measure he dubbed the ''One Big Beautiful Bill.''

''But honestly,'' he said, ''It's been received so well I don't think I have to.''

But later Wednesday during a signing ceremony at the White House for a separate fentanyl-related bill, Trump said Republicans will need to promote the law and acknowledged that Democrats may have found an effective message.

''We're going to have to start speaking about it because the Democrats use it, they say, ‘It represents death.' How effective is that, right? That's pretty good,'' Trump said.

The battle for control of the messaging on the bill could be critical to how well the measure is ultimately received, as some of the most divisive parts of the law, including Medicaid and food assistance cuts, are timed to take effect only after the midterm elections. The bill was generally unpopular before its passage, polls showed, although some individual provisions are popular, like boosting the annual child tax credit and eliminating taxes on tips.

Pennsylvania becomes test case of messaging

West Pittston, which sits in Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan's district in northeastern Pennsylvania, is a place where Trump's populist brand of politics has found a foothold. Trump's popularity with the white working class has accelerated the political shift in nearby areas, including around Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, turning reliably Democratic areas into contested turf and contributing to Trump's 2024 win in Pennsylvania.

There, and in a swing district around Allentown just to the south, Republicans last year knocked off two Democratic U.S. House incumbents after years of trying.

Walter Volinski, a 74-year-old retiree from nearby Swoyersville, said he liked that the bill extended the tax cuts that Trump enacted in his first term. He said he hasn't read the nearly 900-page legislation but he thinks most politicians haven't either. Still, Volinski said, ''I trust Donald Trump and the Republican Party to make this country a great country again.''

Steven Taylor, a 52-year-old truck driver from West Pittston, thought the new law would help people struggling to pay their bills. Taylor, a Republican who voted for Trump, said he liked that the law contained tax breaks on tips and overtime pay. ''Everybody's hurting out here," he said. "We need a little extra help.''

But Taylor said he was concerned that his nephew, who has diabetes, could be affected by the legislation's cuts to Medicaid. ''We don't know as of yet. But we're really hopeful that it doesn't,'' Taylor said.

Maegan Zielinski, a 33-year-old small business owner from Wilkes-Barre who was among a group of people protesting Vance's appearance, said she worried the law will hurt vulnerable people, including those on Medicaid and Medicare. ''I do not like that it continues to support the billionaires instead of the working-class people of America, continuing to give them tax breaks while middle-class America suffers,'' she said.

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has aggressively gone after the state's Republican members of Congress who voted for the bill, including Bresnahan, whose seat is a top Democratic target.

''Shame on these members of Congress who spent the last few months saying, ‘Oh, I'll never cut Medicaid,''' Shapiro said during an appearance earlier this month on WILK-FM radio in Wilkes-Barre. ''I mean, Rep. Bresnahan told you, your listeners, your newspapers, told me to my face, this was a red line in the sand for him, he wouldn't harm people on Medicaid, he wouldn't harm our rural hospitals. … He caved and voted for this bill.''

Bresnahan has defended his vote by saying it strengthens Medicaid by cracking down on fraud, waste and abuse and requiring those who can work to do so. He also said it ensures hospitals in northeastern Pennsylvania will qualify for the funding they need to stay open.

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Price reported from Washington.