Category Archives: Tax Policy

WSJ: ProPublica’s Plan for a Poorer America

Posted in: Tax Policy | June 28, 2021 at 11:35 pm , by mariel

A federal wealth tax would only make it harder for people with big dreams to make them a reality. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon June 16, 2021 6:16 pm ET ProPublica’s “blockbuster” story showing that the wealthy “pay income taxes that are only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of millions, if...

WSJ-The Biden Tax Mirage

Posted in: Fiscal Policy, Tax Policy | May 12, 2021 at 1:02 pm , by mariel

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Marginal rates have been a lot higher, but the actual share the top 1% pay stays remarkably constant. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon May 12, 2021 12:39 pm ET With deficits at levels not seen since World War II, the March $1.9 trillion stimulus only beginning to spend out, and President Biden...

WSJ-Biden Aims at Profit, Hits Workers

Posted in: Fiscal Policy, Tax Policy | April 6, 2021 at 10:13 pm , by mariel

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The 2017 corporate tax cuts triggered the blue-collar wage boom. Higher rates would reverse it. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon April 6, 2021 6:18 pm ET The Biden administration has proposed an array of corporate tax increases with a goal of raising some $1.33 trillion over the next 10 years. That’s three...

WSJ: Bidenomics Failed the First Time

Posted in: Tax Policy | November 2, 2020 at 10:03 am , by mariel

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Claims that he’ll spur growth ignore that his policies are a repeat of the stagnant Obama years. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon Nov. 1, 2020 2:06 pm ET No candidate for president with a legacy of 36 years in the Senate and eight in the West Wing should need an economic projection...

WSJ: Wealthy Americans Already Pay Their Share

Posted in: Tax Policy | February 26, 2020 at 3:28 pm , by mariel

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Arguments to the contrary spurn or wildly distort statistics and cherry-pick anecdotal examples. By Phil Gramm and John F. Early Feb. 25, 2020 7:19 pm ET Even amid a freewheeling presidential primary, Democrats are of one mind when it comes to taxation: Rich Americans are not paying their fair share. Congressional...

WSJ: Warren’s Assault on Retiree Wealth

Posted in: Financial Services, Fiscal Policy, Sectors, Tax Policy | September 11, 2019 at 12:07 am , by mariel

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Her vision of ‘accountable capitalism’ would destroy savings built over a lifetime—and sink the economy. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon Sept. 10, 2019 6:41 pm ET Who owns the vast wealth of America? Old folks. According to the Federal Reserve, households headed by people over the age of 55 own...

WSJ: How to Balance the Budget—Again

Posted in: Fiscal Policy, Tax Policy | August 4, 2019 at 9:58 pm , by mariel

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A GOP Congress and a Democratic president struck an unlikely deal in 1997. It succeeded. By Michael Solon Aug. 4, 2019 5:48 pm ET The budget deal between the president, the Democratic House and the Republican Senate eliminated the risk of debt default, government shutdown and a spending sequester for...

WSJ: The Myth of American Inequality

Posted in: Fiscal Policy, Tax Policy | August 9, 2018 at 11:17 am , by mariel

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Taxes and transfers in the U.S. put its income distribution in line with its large developed peers. By Phil Gramm and John F. Early Aug. 9, 2018 6:51 p.m. ET America is the world’s most prosperous large country, but critics often attempt to tarnish that title by claiming income is distributed...

WSJ: How Income Equality Helped Trump

Posted in: Tax Policy | June 25, 2018 at 1:38 pm , by mariel

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Working Americans sense that taxes and transfers now leave them little better off than those who work less. By Phil Gramm and Robert B. Ekelund Jr. Frenzied rhetoric about income inequality was a larger theme in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign than in any previous American election. When the ballots were...

Trump’s Trade Threats Are Hurting Growth

Posted in: Monetary Policy, Tax Policy | May 10, 2018 at 10:10 am , by mariel

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Tariff tensions promote economic uncertainty, which in turn inhibits business investment. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon Economic uncertainty and prosperity are sworn enemies—when uncertainty reigns, prosperity fades. Uncertainty undermines prosperity by sapping investor and consumer confidence, choking off private investment, and suppressing consumer spending. The depression that followed the 1929...