The Abandoned Goal of Revenue Neutrality

TaxA tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. policy is hard work. But the work becomes harder when tax reform is done in a vacuum, when what ultimately gets signed into law narrowly focuses on the next election cycle rather than the looming fiscal cliff.

Over the past decade, we’ve seen several major tax packages make it from Congress to a president’s desk, including the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Each did some things right and other things wrong, but many moved away from a principle that used to be step one in designing a tax plan, regardless of party: revenue neutrality.

No single bill is fully at fault for the fiscal crises facing our nation. But the mindset in Washington today is one that will only make matters worse sooner than we think.