Tax reform

July 25, 2017

Evaluating Trump’s tax reforms

In April, the Trump administration provided a broad outline of proposed reforms, including simplifying tax brackets, eliminating the marriage penalty, and creating child care deductions. The National Catholic Register recently published an article on the reforms, focusing on its effect on the family. Continue Reading...

February 09, 2016

Ben Sasse on Why Over-Regulation Hurts the Poor

Conservatives are known for arguing about the ill effects of over-regulation, reminding us how it stifles innovation, cramps entrepreneurship, and harms small businesses. Where we’re less effective is connecting this reality to the more fundamental abuses it wields on human dignity in general and the poor and vulnerable in particular. Continue Reading...

December 07, 2015

The Federal ‘Anti-Poverty’ Program that Taxes the Poor

Imagine you’re at the checkout line at the supermarket and the clerk asks how much income your family earns each year. Offended, you ask why that is any of her business. Continue Reading...

January 10, 2014

The J. Wellington Wimpy Budget Policy

In a comment last month on the proposed federal budget deal, Sen. Rand Paul quoted one of the foremost economic thinkers of the twentieth century. “There is a recurring theme in Washington budget negotiations. Continue Reading...

September 29, 2011

Samuel Gregg: Imitate Sweden’s Economic Liberation, Not Her Failed Socialism

Acton’s director of research Samuel Gregg has a piece over at The American Spectator that may surprise big government liberals. (We know you read this blog.) In “Free Market Sweden, Social Democratic America,” he lays out the history of Sweden’s social democracy — its nature and its effects on the country’s economy — and then draws lessons for the United States. Continue Reading...

June 17, 2011

The Complex Tax Code

Today at Capital Commentary I discuss the size and scope of the tax code in the US relative to its basic purposes. In “Back Door Social Engineering,” I argue, “When governments run huge deficits in part because of the complexity of its tax system and the ability of people and institutions to engage in large-scale (and legal) tax avoidance, there is something deeply wrong with the system.” Continue Reading...