The Western Journal

Out-of-Options Dems Return to ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ Try to Compare It to Cracker Barrel Rebrand

The article discusses the changing dynamics of political messaging surrounding a major spending package initially called the “one Big Beautiful Bill Act.” Historically, Labor Day marked a clear shift in the news cycle, but today news runs continuously. A Democratic lawmaker seeks to revive summer controversies such as this bill adn the Cracker Barrel rebrand, using them to gain political advantage. The White House, working with House Republicans, is encouraging a rebranding of the bill’s name to emphasize its “working families tax cut” aspects instead of the original grandiose title, aiming to highlight the substance of the legislation-particularly the tax cuts-over flashy slogans. Texas Republican Rep. Jake Ellzey supports this pragmatic approach, praising Trump’s team for their messaging strategy. Meanwhile, Democrats like Rep. Gwen Moore mock the rebranding effort as insincere.

The article also touches on the broader theme of political branding and wokeness,contrasting the attempt to accurately market policy benefits with the controversial Cracker Barrel rebrand that tried to shift the company’s traditional Southern identity. Democrats have criticized the bill strongly, calling it an “ugly betrayal” and arguing it harms healthcare and food security while aiding wealthy donors. Now that the bill has passed and implementation is underway, Republicans are focused on promoting its tangible benefits to the public. The piece concludes that given the weak Democratic messaging, they have reason to worry about upcoming elections.


It used to be, when I was a lad, that the Labor Day weekend would mark the end of the slow summer news season and the beginning of fall. Congress would return from its break, the torpor of July and August would shake itself off, and the news cycle would begin afresh.

Nowadays, obviously, the news stops for no one or nothing, not even summertime. However, one Democratic lawmaker wants to bring back two of the biggest, most viral issues of the summer — namely, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act reconciliation spending package and the abortive Cracker Barrel rebrand — and try to make hay out of both of them.

Now, in case you missed it — and it was easy to, because this wouldn’t have even made the front pages in the middle of the dog days of August 25 years ago — the White House wants the GOP to emphasize the “working families tax cut” part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act instead of the bigness and beauty of the package, according to The Hill.

“Working families tax cut, that’s what we’re calling it,” said Texas GOP Rep. Jake Ellzey after a briefing of House Republicans by members of Trump’s team on Wednesday.

“’One big, beautiful bill’ doesn’t really say anything about anything,” he added. “That’s well tested.”

Which is true. At the time, the job was to get the bill passed. Now, the job is selling America on the benefits of the bill — and the one they’ll likely favor the most is the extension of tax cuts.

“I went in a little skeptical, and I walked away going, ‘They’re dadgum right. And they know their jobs,’” Ellzey said of Trump’s team.

This shift might be noticed by a few people on an ordinary week, and perhaps more as the tone of Republicans’ messaging shifts. But cue Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Gwen Moore, who decided that a bit of viral clout-chasing was in order.

“Republicans ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’ is so unpopular they’re being instructed by Donald Trump to start calling it the ‘working families tax plan,’” she wrote Wednesday afternoon.

“I thought rebranding is woke?” she added.

From the looks of those images, she doesn’t even know how to use Microsoft Paint or ChatGPT.

And, just to be clear, what the GOP is emphasizing here is the substance of the plans, which is what’s important now. What was important back in June and July was that the GOP understood what this delivered on in terms of their legislative priorities — which is why the Democrats were busy attacking the name then:

Now that it’s moved passed that into implementation and selling it not to the party itself but to the American people, I think it’s fair to say what it does. Wokeness attempts to call something what it isn’t. For instance, watch the fervor with which the phrase “trans women are women,” or something like it, is incanted by some, and you’ll get the idea of why sloganeering is so necessary in that department.

This is why the Cracker Barrel rebrand was so divisive. It tried to turn the brand into something it wasn’t, and away from its primarily Southern roots, into just another MegaCorp Inc.™ that served bland food to the masses.

In this case, she’s protesting that Republicans have called it what it is, convinced that they’re running away from what it was. Untrue. The only people trying to disabuse the media of the bigness or beauty of the bill was the Democrats, who found it ugly because it was too small for their liking. Now, they’re trying to sell America on the fact that it shouldn’t like tax cuts because … Cracker Barrel.

If these are all the ideas the Democrats have got for their “What I Learned on my Summer Vacation” paper, they have every reason to be sweating about the 2026 midterms.




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