GOP Will Have to Radically Depart from Previous Proposals to Meet Its Tax Reform Goals

Following is a statement by Alan Essig, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding GOP leadership’s tax reform goals released today. The tax reform goals outlined in the letter will not be achieved if the GOP pursues pending Trump Administration and House tax proposals.

“First was a so-called health reform bill that proposed reducing access to health care for vulnerable people to finance tax breaks for the rich. Now, we receive grand promises of a tax plan that will benefit the middle-class with only vague details of how our elected officials intend to accomplish this goal.

“If past GOP tax proposals are any indication of how this process will unfold, then we know to expect rhetoric about middle-class tax relief wrapped in policy proposals that would give the rich and corporations substantial tax breaks and either explode the national debt or force spending cuts to education, health care, food security, and other programs working people care about.

“The tax proposals made public by the Trump Administration so far do not meet their stated goals but instead enrich the wealthiest 1 percent at the expense of everyone else. These proposals send a message that the ‘forgotten Americans’ Trump described in his inaugural address would be not just forgotten but completely erased from the minds of the powerful in Washington.”

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Read Essig’s blog on how President Trump and other GOP tax proposals square with the principles released today.

 

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