CNN: America Needs Higher Wages, Not Lower Taxes

There’s no argument over who benefits from the current Republican proposal to cut taxes, if you put aside ideology and honestly look at the numbers. According to analyses from the Tax Policy Center and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, more than two-thirds of the tax cuts would benefit the richest 1% of Americans in 2018. Even putting aside that grotesque Robin Hood-in-reverse policy, the evidence is somewhere between thin to nonexistent that tax cuts have much effect on economic growth. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy notes 3.4% average growth during the administration of Ronald Reagan, who cut taxes, and a higher 3.7% under Bill Clinton, who raised them. (It notes that growth then fell to 1.6% under the tax-cutting Bush administration, but rose back to 2.0% under President Obama.) Read more