Now What? A Post-GOP-Tax-Law Guide for Tax-Fairness Activists

Three vital steps for advocates to take in this unhappy new environment

By William Rice

After a six-month sprint through the legislative process and with barely a vote to spare, the big ugly Republican bill centered on tilted-to-the-rich tax cuts has been enacted. What should those of us who care about tax fairness do in this new environment? Here are three important steps for tax-fairness advocates to take now.

EDUCATE YOURSELF ABOUT THE LAW: As part of the desperate horse trading needed to push their unpopular plan over the finish line, Republicans were making changes to their bill up to the last minute before passage. But the basic outline of the tax-and-service-cutting proposal remained the same: big tax cuts for the wealthy, including billionaires; paid for in part with cuts to healthcare, nutrition assistance and other public services workers and families rely on; plus a huge increase in public debt. 

The highest-income 20% of Americans will get over 70% of the tax cuts; the top 5%, nearly half; the top 1%, almost a quarter. Meanwhile, 17 million people will lose healthcare coverage because of cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and millions will lose some or all of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits that make groceries more affordable. 

According to a report from Americans for Tax Fairness, the majority of the American people, the lowest-income 60%, will face higher costs when the GOP law is combined with Trump’s tariffs. All this from a party that in last year’s elections promised to lower costs for average Americans. 

HOLD THOSE RESPONSIBLE ACCOUNTABLE: No Democrat in either the House or Senate voted for this second Trump-GOP tax law (the first–also slanted to the wealthy–was enacted back in 2017). Nearly every single Republican in both chambers backed the bill. So it’s the Republican Party that’s responsible for the new law and should be held accountable for its effects.

Every time over the next few years that you hear about a family losing Medicaid or SNAP, you can chalk it up to the GOP.  If you see a headline about billionaires reaching a new milestone of stupendous wealth, thank the Republicans. When interest rates rise and it’s harder to buy an appliance, car or house–that’s courtesy of Donald Trump and his GOP buddies in Congress. 

Then remember all those disturbing occurrences and who’s to blame for them when election time rolls around. 

SUPPORT REAL TAX REFORM: The enactment of the Republicans’ deeply regressive tax law makes genuine tax reform–reform that ensures the rich and big corporations pay closer to their fair share–more vital than ever. There are plenty of Democratic plans that would do just that. 

Billionaires can get away with paying relatively little–sometimes nothing–in income taxes because the present system is not set up to tax their main source of income: the increase in the value of investments they don’t sell. Both former President Biden and the top Democrat on the Senate tax-writing committee came up with plans to finally tax that income. Both would raise over half a trillion dollars of revenue while only impacting a tiny handful of the nation’s richest households. 

The first Trump-GOP tax law encouraged corporate offshoring of investments, profits and jobs by charging only half as much U.S. tax on the foreign profits of American corporations as on their domestic earnings. (That discount is set to narrow somewhat next year.) The No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act co-authored by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) would end the offshore tax discount altogether, removing the incentive to move production and jobs overseas and encouraging domestic investment and job creation.

The estate tax is the only federal curb on economic dynasties, yet it has been continually weakened by Republicans over the past 25 years. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) have several times introduced the For the 99.5% Act to strengthen the estate tax, thereby narrowing economic inequality and raising revenue to provide services to everyone not born rich. In the current Congress, Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) has unveiled legislation that would bolster the estate tax and dedicate a portion of the increased revenue to early childhood care and education. From a wealthy family, Jacobs with her plan would reduce her own inheritance. 

The unfair Trump-GOP tax-and-spending bill should never have become law. But now that it has, the work of tax-fairness advocates is not over–in many ways, it’s just beginning.