The GOP Tax Bill was marketed to supercharge growth, help the middle class, and boost worker pay. It’s sold both as a “tax cut” and as “tax reform,” the latter implying that the important part is less about more money in your pocket and more about a change in incentives, and by doing this the bill is meant to create incentives for people to be more economically productive here in the United States. It’s also been blasted as a giveaway to the rich, a giveaway to corporations (apparently also to GOP donors), a budget-buster, and just bad news generally.
But a lot of folks just don’t really know what’s going on. A lot of rumors and propaganda flies around about these things. So let’s break it down for real. We get Jon Schwabish to help us.
(Hey! While you’re here: go check out the Great Books at ILP. Click the banner for 25% off your first 3 months!)
Jonathan Schwabish is a policy data visualization nerd, which means he’s of course dear to our hearts. His website policyviz.com is about how to visualize policy data really well–and why it’s important (I think it’s important). He’s an economist and his big thing is communicating policy and economics more clearly to real people. He spent 9 years at the Congressional Budget Office and is currently a Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute’s Income and Benefits Policy Center and Communication team. He has a book called Better Presentation: A Guide for Scholars, Researchers, and Wonks. Got his PhD from Syracuse. Links to all his stuff in the show notes.
Jon’s Awesome Work
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Jon on twitter: @jschwabish
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His book, Better Presentations
Other Sources & Notes
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https://taxfoundation.org/final-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-details-analysis/
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https://www.thebalance.com/trump-s-tax-plan-how-it-affects-you-4113968
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https://www.thebalance.com/alternative-minimum-tax-amt-who-has-to-pay-3305784
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https://www.investopedia.com/news/trumps-tax-reform-what-can-be-done/
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-is-poised-to-pass-sweeping-tax-overhaul-1513376474
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http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/JointExplanatoryStatement121517.pdf
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http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20171218/Joint%20Explanatory%20Statement.pdf
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https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/12/the-7-myths-of-the-gop-tax-bill/547322/
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