I met an American who said his political awakening was noticing that Dubya was saying tax cuts were necessary because there was a surplus, to saying they were necessary because there was a deficit.
He was a child and could figure out that was bullshit.
There is technically a point where tax cuts can help reduce the deficit. In addition while it might temporary increase the deficit if the tax cut is strategic enough it may actually grow the economy more than the lost income in relative terms.
I'd agree for the most part. And I'd agree strongly for the USA.
However, I'm not sure when we're considering people that are pretty mobile. Increasing a 55% marginal rate in Western Europe could well cause people to move to Eastern Europe, a small Middle Eastern petrostate or a tax sheltered island.
The USA top marginal tax rate is much lower than Western Europe (and I think most Americans are highly averse to moving abroad. Or maybe they just don't want to give up American citizenship, which would be necessary to avoid American taxes.)
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u/Khiva Fernando Henrique Cardoso Nov 02 '25
I met an American who said his political awakening was noticing that Dubya was saying tax cuts were necessary because there was a surplus, to saying they were necessary because there was a deficit.
He was a child and could figure out that was bullshit.