GOP election rout haunts tax reform push

Tuesday's election rout of Republican candidates is being seen by several GOP lawmakers as a sign that they need to quickly pass tax reform, or risk facing an even worse midterm election in 2018.

"If you don't get [tax reform] done, you're guaranteed a bad midterm," said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. "I think this is something that will help us politically, but again, people give you majorities for a reason. If you don't use them and get things done, they'll take them away and give them to somebody else."

"The best way to get run over by this train is to stand still," Cole added. "So you need to actually produce if you're the majority, and I think this is a reminder that the American people are watching, that they are paying attention to what happens, and ... if they don't think you're productive, they're not going to hesitate to fire you."

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, argued the mass losses for the party are a clear reflection of voter anger over the lack of accomplishments and inaction by Republicans, who now control both Congress and the White House. The GOP failed to repeal or overhaul Obamacare early in the year, and now are pushing to pass a complicated tax reform bill by December.

"I think it's more lack of progress with Congress," Meadows said, when asked if he thought voters were mad at President Trump. "I can tell you that back home in my district in North Carolina, they're very supportive of the Trump agenda and the president, and they see them as one in the same in my district. But they're very, extremely frustrated at levels that I've never seen with the inability of Congress to put things on the president's desk."