This paper examines the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017, the largest tax overhaul since 1986. The new tax law makes substantial changes to the rates and bases of both the individual and corporate income taxes, cutting the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent, redesigning international tax rules, and providing a deduction for pass-through income. TCJA will stimulate the economy in the near term. Most models indicate that the long-term impact on GDP will be small. The impact will be smaller on GNP than on GDP because the law will generate net capital inflows from abroad that have to be repaid in the future. The new law will reduce federal revenues by significant amounts, even after allowing for the modest impact on economic growth. It will make the distribution of after-tax income more unequal, raise federal debt, and impose burdens on future generations. When it is ultimately financed with spending cuts or other tax increases, as it must be in the long run, TCJA will, under the most plausible scenarios, end up making most households worse off than if TCJA had not been enacted. The new law simplifies taxes in some ways but creates new complexity and compliance issues in others. It will raise health care premiums and reduce health insurance coverage and will have adverse effects on charitable contributions and some state and local governments. Looking forward, the ultimate effects of TCJA will depend on the currently uncertain responses of other countries, the Federal Reserve Board, and future Congresses, among others.
The negative impact of deficits is long term.It's most definitely not true that corporate tax cuts will have a positive short term impact on the economy. If the tax cuts are going to cause a huge deficit? — LD Saunders
The tariffs imposed by Smoot–Hawley were pervasive and astronomical. The current ones are more targetted. That doesn't mean they are good, but it remains to be seen how big the impact will be, and when it will have a noticeable effect.It was a trade war that crashed the stock market in 1929 and started the great depression that followed.
Why anyone supported his economic plan, which was doomed to failure, as has been explained now for centuries of economic theory and evidence, is beyond me. — LD Saunders
I'm also doubtful, but shouldn't we be open to the possibility it will help - even while maintaining skepticism? I'd be inclined to stop Trump, but since we can't - we're going to have to let it play out, and the right thing to do is to hope for the best. Republicans wanted Obama to fail, even though failure meant bad things for the country. Let's not be that way.China is indubitably hell-bent on stealing the world's trade secrets and at attaining technological and business dominance by whatever means possible. But I'm not sure that the blunt object of tariffs is going to achieve those ends. — Wayfarer
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