Free Republic

Policymakers want to unleash economic growth in America by fixing our broken tax system. Or so they say. Now that the conversation has moved beyond just lowering tax rates, pro-growth tax reform is in danger of losing the stuff that actually makes it pro-growth. That’s because policymakers are caving to big-government advocates and other special interests. Here are the top five worst ideas that would surely dampen pro-growth tax reform. 1. Failing to enact full expensing. Full expensing—allowing businesses to deduct the full cost of their investments when they incur those costs, instead of spreading them out over many years—is...

Bold tax reform got a big boost on Wednesday. Leaders in the House, the Senate, and the White House have all agreed on a tax outline, meaning a true update to our broken tax system could be imminent. First, the GOP tax plan framework would lower taxes for individual Americans. It would double the standard deduction for individuals and thereby expand the zero-percent bracket, and it would create three income tax brackets (down from seven): 12, 25, and 35 percent, respectively. Most simply, this will allow all Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money in their pockets. Importantly, the...

Infrastructure is in the news as policymakers face a deadline to pass a new highway bill. President Obama visited the Tappan Zee Bridge yesterday and said that “rebuilding America … shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” and then cast blame on the Republicans.The president is right that America ought to have better infrastructure. But the leaders of both parties are overlooking the most straightforward and powerful way to do it: slashing taxes on business investment.Most of America’s infrastructure is provided by the private sector, not governments. In fact, private infrastructure spending—on factories, freight rail, cell phone towers, pipelines, refineries, and many...

We received a trade association press release Friday, hailing the defeat of Sen. McCain's "assault on stock options," calling it a "bipartisan effort in support of high-tech workers." A bipartisan assault on investors is more like it. No one on Capitol Hill seems to understand that accounting for stock options has exactly zero economic effect on a company. What they're supporting is not high-tech workers, but corporate greed and a touch of blackmail. Bill Mann's coming out swinging. I hope by the end of this effort, Taryn Lynds, director of public communications with the American Electronics Association (AeA), wishes she...