Tax cuts brought us closer to the debt ceiling
Oxfam 23 -- a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty (“Tax Wealth, Tackle Inequality”, Oxfam, 04-03-2023, https://webassets.oxfamamerica.org/media/documents/Tax_Wealth_Tackle_Inequality_2023.pdf?_gl=1*1lr4rdx*_ga*MzQ2MjE3MzU4LjE2ODE0OTM4NjM.*_ga_R58YETD6XK*MTY4MTQ5Mzg2Mi4xLjEuMTY4MTQ5MzkwNi4xNi4wLjA., Date Accessed 7-5-2023) //TCM
Today’s political gridlock around the debt ceiling was avoidable, and is a direct consequence of tax cuts on the wealthiest and corporations. These tax cuts have in fact brought us closer to the debt ceiling. Without them, debt would actually be falling. As new analysis by the Center for American Progress shows, today’s increasing debt ratio is primarily a result of recent tax cuts for the wealthiest: tax cuts since 2001 have added $10 trillion to the debt, and are responsible for over half the increase in the debt ratio since then. 54 Moreover, as the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has found, over 80% of the tax cuts passed between 2000 and 2018 went to the richest 40%; and most of it went to the richest 5%. 55 The tax cuts alone resulting from the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) will have cost $1.7 trillion by the end of fiscal year 2023. 56 The availability of the trillions of dollars of new resourcing through achievable taxation on the very wealthiest Americans exposes the futility of a debt ceiling standoff. The inequality doesn’t stop there: proposed social spending cuts to resolve a standoff result in disproportionate impacts for people living in poverty; women and girls; and people of color.