ARGUING YES
Executive Director of American Compass
ARGUING NO
David McIntosh
President of the Club for Growth
GUEST MODERATOR
Journalist and Co-Host of the Semafor Podcast “Mixed Signals”
This week:
- Republicans and Tax Cuts: Do they help or hurt Americans’ wallets?
- A closer look at how Americans feel about federal income taxes
- Your Sunday reading list
Is a Trump presidency better for your bank account? In light of possible economic changes next year, we’re taking another look at a Republican-approved formula of lowering taxes to bolster the economy— and whether it is fiscally responsible.
As part of his 2024 campaign, President-elect Trump pledged to reduce or eliminate federal income tax, Social Security benefit taxes and the cap on state and local tax deductions. With Republicans successfully taking control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, some of those promises may come to pass, including the expansion of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and imposing new taxes and tariffs on imported goods and services.
It’s in line with many Republicans’ views that Americans should keep more of the money they earn, and tax cuts are better for the economy. But not every conservative strategist feels that way. They say that we are already going too far, pointing to $35 trillion in debt and say more tax cuts will blow up the deficit and create a fiscal crisis that hurts ordinary citizens. Arguing “no” is David McIntosh, a conservative with one perspective on the issue and the President of the Club for Growth which focuses on taxes and other economic issues. Arguing “yes” is another esteemed conservative with the opposing view, the chief economist and founder of American Compass Oren Cass.
Find out by listening to the debate on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. As always, let us know what you think.
DEBATING THE DATA
Should federal income taxes be lowered?
POINT/COUNTERPOINT
Is the Republican Party’s Refusal to Raise Taxes Fiscally Irresponsible?
YES: Oren Cass
“Since the early 1990s, Republicans have tried this: we are just going to deprive the government of revenue, and the spending will come down. It has failed miserably. It simply does not work… In the wake of tax cuts, spending has gone up faster. This is particularly a problem for Republicans, who simply cannot make a claim to having any sense of fiscal responsibility on the spending side, even if they controlled the entire government and could do whatever they want. There’s no evidence Republicans would actually bring spending down as much as they would need to sustain the level of taxes they keep insisting [on].”
NO: David McIntosh
“Raising taxes would hurt the economy, hurt the American people, and send us in the wrong direction. To say we’ve got a big spending problem and therefore we should raise taxes seems to me the exact wrong direction because it deflects from needing to gather the political force to actually get Washington to reduce spending. The answer isn’t to say, okay, let’s raise everybody’s taxes. What we’ve seen in the past is lower taxes actually increase the economy and that lets the government collect more revenue.”
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Break Down the Bias
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