The National Interest

It Takes a Certain Talent to Make Tax Cuts This Unpopular But the GOP appears up to the task.

- Jonathan Chait

THE OTHER NIGHT at dinner, I was explaining to my kids how the Republican agenda in Washington has settled into a familiar groove of manic tax-cutting for the rich. The House, Senate, and White House are united in their determination to deeply reduce taxes on corporations, partially or completely eliminate the tax on inherited estates of more than $11 million, give business owners a special low rate, as well as administer other comforts for the comfortable that we liberals see as unlikely to help anybody other than their direct beneficiaries. The news made them glum. My daughter, seeking some solace, and having been repeatedly impressed that our family has it better than most of our fellow Americans, suggested, “But at least we’ll get a tax cut, too, right?” I brightened for a moment and then realized we’re a household with kids that pays state income-tax rates, and told her, “Uh, actually, we’re probably going to pay more.”

There was a time when liberal professionals, watching in horror as Republican presidents drove the federal budget into a ditch, could at least count on the semi-guilty consolation of a tax break. And I would indeed be happy to have my tax rate raised for the purpose of reducing the deficit or funding important social needs. But the prospect of paying higher taxes in order to finance gigantic tax cuts for much richer people is a novel misery. The comprehensive awfulness of the Trump administration has extended into new terrain.