Though Tax Hikes Will Be Avoided, the House Bill Misses the Bigger Picture
The tax bill prioritizes politics over economic growth, writes Daniel Bunn.
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The tax bill prioritizes politics over economic growth, writes Daniel Bunn.
The Republican party, led by President Trump, has decided that growth is no longer a priority. This is evident in the president’s trade war, the minimal opposition among Republican members of Congress, and the seemingly endless supply of bad policy ideas that will do little to support growth.
Lawmakers should push against efforts to lift the SALT cap, and they should keep an eye toward bringing additional transparency to the tax system.
Political popularity isn’t always a reliable gauge of sound policy—and that’s certainly true of President Donald Trump’s idea to eliminate taxes on tips, bonuses, and overtime pay.
Attempting to defend Trump’s tariffs, the White House points to studies that show they raise prices, cut manufacturing output, and lead to costly retaliation.
The U.S. Constitution grants authority to Congress to “lay and collect” duties and to “regulate commerce with foreign nations.” But Congress has delegated its powers to set tariffs and negotiate trade to the president. For decades, the executive branch has used those powers to reduce barriers to trade and, sometimes, to impose tariffs in limited fashion.
Compromising on the timing and availability of expensing—or offsetting the revenue losses by worsening other parts of the tax code—would squander an opportunity to craft a fiscally responsible, pro-growth tax reform.
According to a new poll from the Tax Foundation and Public Policy Polling, more than half of taxpayers lack basic tax literacy, regardless of educational attainment, income level, or political affiliation.
If voters are being asked to charge state legislators with raising the equivalent of a doubling of the current income and sales tax, shouldn’t they get to know what the plan is first?
Amidst a government shutdown, healthcare subsidies have metastasized into a major threat to the nation’s fiscal and economic health.
Taxing carbon emissions could leave decisions about reducing greenhouse gases to the market.
Canada has the power to shape its own competitiveness by making itself an attractive destination for investment this 2025 budget season.
The reality is that the US is the winner from globalization, the capital of the world. Let’s keep it that way.
Instead of getting stuck in a reactionary posture, European countries should simply aim for competitiveness, and the EU can support that work with stronger, more stable trade relationships.
President Donald Trump’s fixation on tariffs as a solution for just about everything, including the deficit, has led him to run roughshod over the law and norms of international trade.
The US has a reasonably robust system for containing profit shifting; it is in effect already working towards the Pillar Two goals. Its negotiating posture is in many cases curbing unreasonable sidetracks, not undermining the whole project.
President Trump’s recent decision to replace the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics has the feeling of replacing the meteorologist and hoping you get better weather. But economic data affect government actions and could have surprising consequences. If nominee E.J. Antoni manipulates the statistics to make Mr. Trump look good, you could end up paying higher taxes.
While the One Big Beautiful Bill Act tries to buoy manufacturing, President Trump’s tariffs are an anvil dragging the sector down.
Though high schools will continue to teach the next generation about civics, English, and math, one critical topic remains missing from many classrooms: taxes.
Michigan voters may soon consider a dramatic change to the state’s income tax.
This past spring, DC taxpayers were sidelined when the Washington Commanders announced that city aid would help fund a new stadium on the site of the vacant RFK Stadium. The $4 billion deal will be offset by a staggering $1.15 billion in public revenue.
The administration has a strong desire to boost manufacturing investment and there are many provisions in the new tax bill that support this aim. But the administration’s erratic trade policy is driving up the costs of key inputs that manufacturers rely on to build things in the US.
President Trump made clear that the US wouldn’t accept the global minimum tax (known as Pillar Two) from the OECD in its current form.
We are living in an age of hyperbole, or as writer Matthew Hennessey calls it, the “Age of Excusability,” in which our politicians succeed by making outlandish claims. So it goes with the One Big Beautiful Bill, which will usher in a new golden age or send us down the tubes for good, depending on your sources.
New Jersey’s residents deserve tax relief, and the state must stem the tide of out-migration. Affordable reforms in the near term could pave the way for more sweeping, and competitive, reforms to take root in the future.
President’s Trump’s policies would throw high-tax states a life raft as they swim against the tide—before potentially hitting all states with a tariff-induced economic tsunami that could force lawmakers’ hands and reverse recent tax relief.
Rhode Island lawmakers are debating raising the state’s top income tax rate. Though billed as a tax hike on high earners, the consequences would manifest across the state’s entire economy—creating a risk that Rhode Island will tax its way into uncompetitiveness.
As the Senate considers next steps for the House-passed “big, beautiful” tax bill, the battle lines have been drawn for a showdown over the state and local tax (SALT) deduction.
Unlike banks, credit unions remain exempt from most taxes. The credit union tax exemption doesn’t make dollars, and now, it doesn’t make sense.