No issue defines the diametrically opposite economic philosophies of Joe Biden and Donald Trump than their position on the Trump tax cuts. Trump wants to make those tax cuts permanent; Biden has repeatedly promised to tax America back to prosperity by repealing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. But there are so many factual errors swirling around regarding the Trump tax cuts that it’s a wonder that the “truth screeners” on the internet haven’t flagged this all as “disinformation.”
So, as a public service I will help do their job for them and review “just the facts, ma’am,” using the official government data, on how after five years the tax cuts have impacted jobs, the economy, tax fairness and the simplicity of the tax code.
1. The Trump tax law was one of the biggest middle-class tax cuts in U.S. history. The Trump Treasury Department calculated that the average family of four saves roughly $2,000 a year. This means, sorry, Joe, repealing the bill would raise taxes for most families making less than $400,000. The House Budget Committee has estimated that the typical family will pay $1,500 more taxes annually if Biden repeals the Trump tax cut.
2. The Trump tax cuts vastly simplified the tax code for the majority of Americans. A major feature of the bill was to double the standard deduction from $12,500 to $25,000. As a result, prior to the Trump tax cuts, about one-third of tax filers had to itemize their deductions and keep track for the IRS of shoe boxes of receipts and other transactions related to mortgage payments, charitable deductions, interest payments and so on. Now nearly 90% of Americans — and almost all middle-and lower-income families — just check a box of the standard deduction.
3. The Trump tax bill forces millionaires and billionaires in blue states to pay their fair share of taxes. One of the smartest features of the Trump bill was to cap the deduction of state and local taxes for the super-rich. This allowed millionaires and billionaires in blue states like New York and California to pay billions of dollars less in taxes than an equally wealthy tax filer in low-tax states like Florida and Texas. The old law encouraged states and localities to raise their taxes because it shifted the federal tax burden on to residents of other states.
4. The Trump tax cut expanded the economy and business activity, which ended up RAISING tax revenues. A study by Heritage Foundation fiscal analyst Preston Brashers examines the impact of the Trump tax cuts after four years and found that the policy changes actually raised MORE revenue in its first four years than the Congressional Budget Office predicted without the tax cut. The House Budget Committee similarly concluded in a May 2024 analysis: “The Trump tax cuts resulted in economic growth that was a full percentage point above CBO’s forecast.” Revenues were $200 billion a year MORE than was predicted before the tax cuts.
5. The rich paid more, not less taxes after the Trump tax cut. Biden says continually that the major reason the deficit has exploded is that Trump cut taxes on the rich. Wrong. Five years after the Trump tax cuts, the IRS’ own data show the top 1% of earners in America saw their percentage of total income taxes collected rise from 40% to 46% of the total in 2022. This was the LARGEST share of taxes paid by the rich EVER.
The truth is, almost all the negative claims that Democrats made in opposing the Trump tax cuts in 2017 were proven to be fallacious. Rather than admit that they were wrong, they’ve doubled down in their commitment to policies that would raise taxes on virtually every American corporation, small business, family and investor. Perhaps the theme for the Biden campaign should be “Putting America Last.”
Stephen Moore is a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a senior economic advisor to Donald Trump. His latest book is: “Govzilla: How the Relentless Growth of Government Is Devouring Our Economy.”
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Easiest way to keep the tax cuts and roll us back to the good old Trump era of prosperity.
Throw the Totalitarian Communist Democrat Party comrade’s out of office.
Reelect TRUMP!!
One has to remember that the ultimate goal of the Left/Democrats is the destruction of the nation and to become a nation of the elite rich who make the rules and everyone else poor.
As usual the dims are standing on the wrong side of another issue. How many of these does it take to make people realize that they are incompetent at running the country? My daughter and her husband told me in 2020 that they were going to vote for Biden. I told them that if they did they could look to have some insurmountable financials to deal with because he would stop the oil industry from drilling by placing unreal restrictions on them. That is exactly what happened. She later asked me what happened to the gas prices? I said I told you he was going to stop domestic oil companies from drilling and she said that he had stated that he would not do that. I said he is a liar. That is what he does. When he does that it will raise the prices of everything because like it or not the prices of oil affect everything that has to be transported to market. Trucks, ships, trains, and planes all run off oil. It also helped to disrupt the supply chain which caused my son-in-law to lose his job. Also my daughter wound up losing her job due to Covid restrictions. All of the financial strain caused the two of them to divorce. I’m sure that this played out in a lot of households. Some people just don’t understand that when you have a governing party that stands on the wrong side of most issues that it will have a drastic negative impact on all of our lives. Does anybody hear?????
Democrats talk about taxes like its THEIR money… if they want to tax someone, tax Joe Biden & Family and their many LLC shell corporations his Big Guy 10% is laundered through!
All rational reasons which is of course the problem. In our government of today no thought is ever given to such frivolities such as reason or logic or even past performance. I mean the nation has a debt equal to its GDP and yep, our government gave that nation killing burden just as they will of course repeal the Trump tax cuts.
They have been lying about the $12,000.00 deduction, because we lost the $4,000.00+ special deduction that we had. So the 12K is really about 7.5K + or -.
I have read that Trump tax cuts add $1 Trillion per year to our debt. If this is true, then how can these cuts remain. And how did Trump put in tax cuts without going thru Congress as I do not think POTUS should have power to control our taxes. And what happened to Trump allowing people not to pay Social Security FICA taxes his last year in office? This article is very slanted as it only paints the rosy side of Trump tax cuts & not the pros and cons of what this means to Ameria future.
I believe the Trump tax cuts will ultimately be the elimination of the IRS and a flat tax on new, non-essential items only.
TROLL !!!