Fear can be a great motivator. And that goes a long way toward explaining why congressional Republicans are more likely than not to pass their unpopular tax cut plan. Republican lawmakers fear heading into the 2018 midterm elections with no significant accomplishments while also bungling what is supposed to be their core competency: cutting taxes. No wonder many GOPers on Capitol Hill fervently believe that failure to pass tax cuts would present them with an existential electoral threat. Their party's leader, President Trump, would attack them as do-nothing swamp creatures. Their voters would dismiss them as incompetent elitists. And their impatient donors would close their wallets.