Setting the Record Straight: What Critics Get Wrong About Trump’s Tax Cuts

“Face it. You (probably) got a tax cut.”

That was a headline from The New York Times back in April of 2019 analyzing the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (otherwise known as the Trump tax cuts).

How the times have changed, at least when it comes to the opinion pages.

In a recent guest piece for The New York Times, a self-proclaimed conservative – best known for consistently pushing Elizabeth Warren-style economic progressivism – is arguing against the full extension of President Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and for higher taxes.

In doing so, he makes a series of claims that are simply not true. So, we wanted to set the record straight – on the merits.

First, we need to address the elephant in the room – the bizarre claim that Americans don’t view tax cuts as a top priority.

To be clear, we’re talking about a tax hike (the largest ever). And Americans oppose tax hikes almost unanimously.

Allowing the 2017 tax cuts to expire means an automatic tax hike for American families. The average American family will pay an additional $1,500 in taxes come next year. You can calculate what that means for your unique situation or take a look at what average hikes in your state will be like.

Extending expiring pieces of the TCJA is about keeping rates where they are rather than letting them go up.

Polling by Public Opinion Strategies conducted shortly before the election showed 76% of voters said now is a bad time to increase taxes, and that view was shared by the majority in all political affiliations.

A staggering 90% supported keeping tax rates where they are rather than raising them.

Second, we want to address the progressive talking point that the TCJA didn’t lead to economic growth. This is demonstrably false by almost every metric that matters to the American people.

Between TCJA being signed and the COVID-19 pandemic starting, the U.S. added 5 million new jobs, and the unemployment rate reached 3.5% in September 2019, the lowest it had been since 1969.

Inflation-adjusted medium income reached an all-time high of $78,250 in 2019, which is 8.5% higher than in 2017 when the law was passed. Companies announced more perks and investment in workers, and more than 870,000 Americans received a bonus of $1,000 or more.

Real wages and salaries are estimated to be $3.6 trillion higher than projected before TCJA.

And businesses and production grew too. Gross domestic product will be $12 trillion than CBO originally projected, and private investment is estimated to be $4 trillion higher than projected before TCJA.

By any measure, and specifically these ones, TCJA was and is fantastic for the economy.

Finally, it is a false choice that if you care about deficits and spending, you can’t support keeping taxes low.

Washington absolutely needs to get spending under control and reform processes and programs to do it. Americans for Prosperity has been fighting the unchecked growth of government since our founding 20 years ago, and we don’t plan to stop.

The solution to our debt and deficit is not to tax people more, it’s to cut spending – something the author at The New York Times has consistently opposed.

We need to have the best pro-growth tax reform package possible AND cut spending – but one shouldn’t come at the expense of the other. We don’t need to choose between letting people keep more of their money and telling Washington to spend less of it.

What’s more, federal tax revenues are estimated to be higher after TCJA than they were projected before the bill was signed into law – $620 billion higher through this year and $2.7 trillion over 10 years.

The debt and deficit are massive problems that put our economic prosperity at risk. The rampant, unchecked spending is what the federal budget can’t bear. The solution is pro-growth tax reform and spending cuts.

The bottom line: Inflation and Bidenomics fueled voters to overwhelmingly support President Trump’s return to the White House, and even Democratic strategists said they underestimated sentiment about the cost of living.

It’s almost inconceivable to suggest Americans don’t see keeping their own money as a priority when we are still reeling from the failures of Bidenomics.

Americans for Prosperity has always been on the side of the American taxpayer, which is to be on the side of the health of the economy as well. We’ll continue to call avoiding a tax hike a priority, because it is one. The American people can’t afford it.