By MICHELLE L. PRICE
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. (AP) — Vice President JD Vance pitched President Donald Trump’s sweeping new law as a “working families’ tax cut” during a visit Thursday to a refrigeration facility in swing-state Georgia, a preview of the midterm message that Republicans are expected to campaign on next year.
In his third trip to promote Trump’s tax cuts and spending bill, Vance cited its tax cut extensions as well as tax breaks on overtime and tips that he said “rewards you instead of punishes you for working hard.”
“If you’re working hard, the government ought to leave you alone,” Vance said in his visit to Alta Refrigeration, an industrial refrigeration manufacturing facility in Peachtree City, in metro Atlanta.
Less than 20 miles to the northeast, Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff was also talking about the tax law but noting provisions that cut Medicaid and food stamps by $1.2 trillion. He pointed to reports this week from Evans Memorial Hospital, a rural hospital in Claxton, Georgia, where the facility’s CEO is blaming the law for a $3.3 million hole in the hospital’s budget. Bill Lee, the president and CEO of the hospital, told reporters that it might need to cut its intensive care unit.
“To be very blunt, I think it is embarrassing for the vice president to be coming to Georgia to sell a policy that is already resulting in harm,” Ossoff said in Jonesboro at the Clayton County Chamber of Commerce.
The visits encapsulate how both Republicans and Democrats are seeking to capitalize on the president’s signature law before the 2026 elections, where U.S. House, Senate and governor’s seats are up for grabs. The races will give voters nationwide one of their first chances to weigh in on the second Trump presidency.
In Peachtree City, Vance described the cuts to Medicaid as ensuring that people who are in the United States illegally are not receiving benefits meant for low-income people.
“It’s not about kicking people off of health care,” Vance said. “It’s about kicking illegal aliens the hell out of this country, so that we can preserve health care for American families.”
Vance was joined by two members of Congress, Buddy Carter and Mike Collins, and former college football coach Derek Dooley, all of whom who are running in the GOP race to challenge Ossoff next year.
At the Alta Refrigeration facility, Vance stood in a warehouse in front of a large American flag and two banners that said, “Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!”
As he spoke to several hundred people, the vice president also said he was proud to have gone out in the District of Columbia with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday to visit National Guard troops that Trump has deployed in the city as part of a law enforcement crackdown.
“We’ve got to take America’s streets back for the American people,” Vance said.
He was asked if the administration expected to deploy troops in Atlanta, too. Vance did not directly answer but said the Republican administration has focused on the situation in the nation’s capital.
“We hope the people see what we’re doing in Washington, D.C., and follow our example all across the country,” he said.
Last month, Vance also promoted the new law in visits to areas in Ohio and Pennsylvania that are expected to have competitive U.S. House races next year.
While Georgia will host a competitive U.S. Senate race in 2026, the congressional district where Vance stopped on Thursday is heavily Republican.
It’s represented in Congress by Republican Brian Jack, a former Trump aide who served in the president’s first term as his political director.
Before his stop in Peachtree City, Vance appeared at a closed-door meeting of Republican National Committee members in Atlanta. Vance is the finance co-chair of the RNC and has been leading fundraising efforts for the party.
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