It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix a tax code that stifles business investment, keeps trillions in corporate profits languishing overseas and slows the American economy.
So argue Republicans in Congress, who hail their tax overhaul as an economic tonic that will deliver benefits to ordinary Americans well into the future.
Democrats and most nonpartisan analysts see things rather differently – and they point to history to argue their case. They see the tax plan as an ill-conceived bill that will further enrich the wealthy and swell the government’s debts by at least $1 trillion in the next decade. Previous tax cuts, they note, have done little to boost hiring, raise wages or accelerate economic growth.
Either way, President Donald Trump is prepared to sign the measure into law this week, to take effect in 2018, after the House and Senate each passed it Wednesday. The bill – approved without a single Democratic vote in Congress -will mark the most far-reaching rewrite of tax law since 1986.
Over the weekend, Trump spoke expansively about the economic bounty he said the bill would unleash. Noting that the American economy grew at an annual rate of at least 3 percent in each of the past two quarters, Trump predicted that “we could go to 4, 5, or even 6 percent, ultimately. We are really going to start to rock.”