Taxes and the 2024 election

By Shelbey Diamond-Alexander

It is a Republican belief that the best way to serve the public good is to slash taxes and regulations because that would enable the very wealthy to accumulate capital they would then invest more efficiently in the economy; therefore helping everyone, maybe.

Proponents of the 2017 Trump tax cuts said the cuts would benefit mainly ordinary Americans. Instead, the bill gave those in the top 1% a tax cut more than 50 times higher than the cut that fell to middle-income households. Meanwhile, corporations used their tax savings on stock buybacks, dividends, and executive pay. No wage gains trickled down to the bottom 90% of workers.

Our economic growth rate was supposed to double or triple. Instead, our GDP stayed at about the same rate as it had been before the tax cuts. Those behind the 2017 tax bill said it would increase revenues and pay for itself, but revenues fell and the deficit increased.

Trump promises to cut taxes again for the wealthiest among us and institute tariffs, which are essentially taxes levied on imported goods and passed on to the consumer. Abolishing the income tax and replacing it with tariffs would raise taxes for a typical American family by $5,000.

The Biden administration favors a fairer system of increasing taxes on less than 5% of households and on big corporations mostly by tightening tax loopholes. His proposal to restore the Child Tax Credit benefits parents of all income levels.

By not showing preference to the wealthiest of the wealthy, our country can raise enough revenue to fund critical national priorities, like Social Security. By The Way, the Heritage Foundation, funded by Koch Industries and the major organization behind Project 2025, has called for raising the retirement age for Social Security benefits to reduce its funding.

So, who would be best at serving the public good?

It is a Republican belief that the best way to serve the public good is to slash taxes and regulations because that would enable the very wealthy to accumulate capital they would then invest more efficiently in the economy; therefore helping everyone, maybe.

Proponents of the 2017 Trump tax cuts said the cuts would benefit mainly ordinary Americans. Instead, the bill gave those in the top 1% a tax cut more than 50 times higher than the cut that fell to middle-income households. Meanwhile, corporations used their tax savings on stock buybacks, dividends, and executive pay. No wage gains trickled down to the bottom 90% of workers.

Our economic growth rate was supposed to double or triple. Instead, our GDP stayed at about the same rate as it had been before the tax cuts. Those behind the 2017 tax bill said it would increase revenues and pay for itself, but revenues fell and the deficit increased.

Trump promises to cut taxes again for the wealthiest among us and institute tariffs, which are essentially taxes levied on imported goods and passed on to the consumer. Abolishing the income tax and replacing it with tariffs would raise taxes for a typical American family by $5,000.

The Biden administration favors a fairer system of increasing taxes on less than 5% of households and on big corporations mostly by tightening tax loopholes. His proposal to restore the Child Tax Credit benefits parents of all income levels.

By not showing preference to the wealthiest of the wealthy, our country can raise enough revenue to fund critical national priorities, like Social Security. By The Way, the Heritage Foundation, funded by Koch Industries and the major organization behind Project 2025, has called for raising the retirement age for Social Security benefits to reduce its funding.

So, who would be best at serving the public good?

The writer is chairperson of the Barrow County Democratic Committee