View all Articles
Commentary By Brian Riedl

What Conservatives Get Wrong About Taxes

Economics Tax & Budget

Perhaps the most common and harmful conservative tax fallacy is that most tax cuts entirely pay for themselves with the revenues from expanded economic activity.

US tax policy remains as contentious as ever, with Americans fighting over how much revenue the government should collect, who should pay, and how various taxes affect the economy. These questions will again dominate Washington in 2025 as Congress debates the extension of $4 trillion in expiring tax cuts. Unfortunately, both conservatives and liberals are in the grip of tax policy narratives that have long been undisputed orthodoxy within their own echo chambers yet are clearly contradicted by the tax data. This essay examines conservative tax myths. A companion essay examines persistent liberal myths.

Perhaps the most common and harmful conservative tax fallacy is that most tax cuts entirely pay for themselves with the revenues from expanded economic activity. Indeed, every major Republican tax cut over the past half-century has been sold as a free lunch that will cost the federal government no revenue.

Continue reading the entire piece here at the Boston Globe (paywall)

______________________

Brian M. Riedl is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.

Photo by Nora Carol Photography/Getty Images