Jean Ross, CAP: “86 percent of survey respondents said the experience of using Direct File increased their trust in the IRS.”

Timothy Noah: “Trump’s tax policies won’t play well with working-class voters if they ever get around to comparing them to Biden’s. Hence Trump’s promise to eliminate taxes on tips. If you’re inclined, as many working-class voters are, to regard the federal government with contempt, eliminating the taxation of tips might sound pretty good. But the idea doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.”

“An assessment of the Biden administration’s tax proposals on increasing capital gains taxes has found that they would reduce wealth inequality without harming economic growth.”

Bharat Ramamurti: “By strengthening enforcement authorities and funding, emphasizing competition across federal agencies, enacting progressive tax policy, and addressing competitive issues in the fields of information technology and artificial intelligence, future administrations can build on recent progress in promoting competitive markets and deliver real gains to American consumers and workers.”

“We have a major economic policy decision that lies ahead: whether to return to the trickle-down policies of the past or forge ahead with a different approach, the president’s approach to grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up…The expiration of Trump’s 2017 tax package next year will put tax fairness front and center. Do we want a tax system that favors the wealthy or the middle class?”

A new analysis from economist Gabriel Zucman reveals that for the first time, U.S. billionaires have a lower effective tax rate than working-class Americans.

David Mitchell of Washington Center for Equitable Growth: “Among the many regressive and ineffective elements of the Trump administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, one provision stands out as the most convoluted, unfair, and ripe for abuse. Section 199A of the Internal Revenue Code delivered a 20 percent deduction to the “qualified business income” of pass-through business owners.”

Elizabeth Pancotti of Roosevelt Institute: “While the expiration of TCJA provisions creates an opportunity to revisit the tax code, today’s tax reform conversation need not, and should not, be confined to the boundaries of the TCJA’s provisions—with policymakers narrowly considering whether to return our tax code to its pre-2017 state or make current policy the permanent law of the land.”

Josh Bivens of EPI: “There is a pronounced Democratic advantage in nearly every measure of macroeconomic performance. Positive indicators like growth in gross domestic product, income, jobs and wages are faster, while negative indicators like unemployment, inflation, and interest rates are lower.”

Aurelia Glass & David Madland of CAP: ”New analysis finds that private investments from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act are being announced in the communities that have been hit hardest by disinvestment in American manufacturing.”

Revolving Door Project: “Larry Summers' latest departure raises questions new and old. And we wish Politico had buried this lede, preferably at least six feet deep.”

Preston Mui of Employ America: “The last major productivity gains in the US economy happened in the 1990s. We have the opportunity today to recreate some of the dynamics that produced those sustained productivity gains. To restore this productivity growth today, policy should focus on the core drivers of 1990s measured productivity growth: a mature labor market, a fixed investment boom, and a stable supply of essential commodities and services. “

EPI: “The decline of the American labor movement since the 1970s has been a major cause of stagnating wages and rising income inequality, and contributes to U.S. workers facing more dangerous working conditions than their counterparts in other wealthy countries. With the 2024 presidential election approaching, however, it is crucial to look beyond these economic consequences—as important as they are—and to recognize that the decline of American labor unions also leaves American democracy vulnerable.”