Although Trump hasn’t been in the Oval Office in three-plus years, there are plenty of ways to measure his legacy, including this Kathryn Anne Edwards column on the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
The authors of the tax cut initially sold it as a “miracle drug” (apparently a familiar argument to those in the White House Medical Unit). But six years later, all evidence points to the Act as an unmitigated fiscal disaster. “By 2027, it will have cost almost $2 trillion, while failing to deliver the promised benefits,” she writes. The list of didn’ts is long: It didn’t increase wages. It didn’t impact economic growth. It didn’t force companies to invest. It didn’t get more people hired. It didn’t give employees raises. It didn’t do anything, really.
But $2 trillion isn’t nothing! We could have used that money to extend the Child Tax Credit — which helped lift nearly three million children out of poverty — by 10 years. After that, we’d still have enough left over to provide universal child care and two years of free preschool. Next year, Congress will decide whether to extend the TCJA. We’d all be wise to keep that in mind when heading to the ballot.
No comments:
Post a Comment