Marjorie Taylor Greene Leaves Congress With Clear Message: A ‘Tax Revolt’ in 2026

Retiring Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene used her final days in office to boost talk of a “tax revolt,” casting federal taxes as the clearest symbol of a government that, in her view, has stopped serving working Americans. 

The rhetoric builds on a monthslong affordability campaign as she leaves Congress after a highly public break with President Donald Trump, and draws on her summer policy push for the No Tax on Home Sales Act—her proposal to eliminate the tax-free profit limits on the sale of a primary residence.

“Trump spent the weekend with [Volodymyr] Zelensky and [Benjamin] Netanyahu, Pentagon fails audit again, meanwhile Americans are planning a tax revolt because they don’t know what else to do,” Greene wrote in a New Year's Eve post on X (formerly Twitter).

Just one day before, Turning Point USA contributor Savanah Hernandez had suggested in a post that she would no longer pay taxes.

“This is how angry Americans are and rightfully so, with nearly $40 Trillion in debt and Social Security becoming insolvent in 2033,” Greene posted in response. “Now imagine if millions of Americans did this.”

With Greene’s final day in Congress set for Jan. 5, 2026, it’s unclear what comes next for her political career, but she leaves with a clear message.

‘A very centered focus on the American people’

Greene’s final push for a “tax revolt” is the culmination of her broader political arc that has long centered on affordability and cost-of-living pressures for everyday Americans.

In her telling, the federal tax system is emblematic of a government that prioritizes foreign wars, corporate interests, and elite donors over the working class.

“I have a very centered focus on the American people and America first,” Greene told Realtor.com® in an exclusive interview in July 2025. “Since I’ve been in Congress, I’ve watched a lot of our tax dollars go overseas and go to special interest causes, while the American people continue to suffer and suffer and suffer.”

In that interview, Greene cited her personal experience as a small-business owner and mother of three as central to her perspective—an argument she has also echoed more recently as she explains her decision to leave Congress in a recent profile in the New York Times.

The problem, she told Realtor.com, was as structural as it was ideological: “It’s completely against who we are as a country and as Americans to just continue to tax people to death.”

Since then, her frustration has spilled over to the MAGA movement’s failure, in her view, to deliver materially for the people it claims to represent. While other Republicans were focused on crypto, AI, or geopolitical messaging, Greene was sounding alarms about rising housing costs, shrinking retirement security, and constituents “barely making ends meet.”

“We have nearly $40 trillion in debt, unaffordable healthcare, unaffordable housing,” she posted on X in another one of her final salvos from office. “And the dollar loses value every day. Meanwhile the government, NO MATTER WHICH PARTY IS IN CHARGE, screws over Americans.”

‘There's a lot of problems in the real estate market’

That economic frustration crystallized this summer into one of Greene’s signature policy proposals: a bill that would have eliminated the capital gains tax on the sale of primary residences. To her, the housing market is a clear example of how federal tax policy punishes the very Americans it was supposed to help.

“There's a lot of problems in the real estate market,” Greene told Realtor.com in July.

Under current law, homeowners can exclude up to $250,000 in capital gains ($500,000 for joint filers) when they sell their primary residence, provided they meet certain ownership and use criteria.

But home prices have more than doubled in many markets since the exclusion was set in 1997. Today, roughly 1 in 3 homeowners—nearly 29 million households—has built up more home equity than the current exclusion for single filers protects, according to an analysis by the National Association of Realtors®. By 2030, that number is expected to grow to 56% of homeowners.

For Greene, that tax burden is as unfair as it is a clear barrier to mobility, and by extension, to fixing the broader housing crisis.

“I own a construction company, so I'm very familiar with the commercial and residential building market as well as real estate, and it's stagnant,” Greene said.

Home sellers "get penalized so much because of the large amount of equity they've gained in capital gains taxes,” she said. Empty nesters and baby boomers in her district are “sitting on” homes they’d otherwise sell if not for the tax hit.

To her point, research has shown that today’s exclusion limits disproportionately affect senior homeowners, who tend to have longer tenure and far more equity. 

Nationally, 31.6% of homeowners over age 65 exceed the single-filer exclusion, and in eight states plus Washington, DC, a majority of senior owners are above the cap. And despite owning similarly valued homes, older sellers face an average federal tax bill of about $41,232 when they move, compared with $34,732 for the general population.

‘It’s not worth it’

Greene said that the idea for eliminating capital gains taxes on primary home sales is rooted in what she hears from constituents, especially older homeowners weighing whether to downsize. 

“I hear it everywhere I go,” she said. “If we start talking about the ability to sell their home, they say, ‘It's not worth it.’”

That refrain, Greene argued, is keeping long-term owners trapped. 

“It’s just not worth it for people to pay that capital gains penalty and then not be able to replace the home they have,” she said.

To her, that makes the issue moral and historical.

“Taking it away completely is the greatest gift we can give to the American people,” she said. “After all, this is a country that was founded on a revolution against taxation.”

The projected cost of her bill would have been $6 billion, but Greene argued it could easily be offset: “We can cut some foreign aid spending here and there and make sure that we're giving a giant gift to the American people.”

It’s a message she’s now taking with her as she leaves Congress. While the No Tax on Home Sales Act has not advanced out of the House Ways and Means Committee, it’s clear that Greene is intent on making sure her message doesn’t die in the dark.