Tax Cuts Versus Big Spending Is the Debate of the Decade
Democrats and Republicans will be arguing endlessly over which plan created more jobs and growth. By the time we know, it won't really matter.
Whose plan was better for the economy?
Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/AFP
When Republicans passed deep tax cuts in 2017, Democrats howled, seeing it as a giveaway to corporations and the rich that would enlarge the federal budget deficit while doing very little for economic growth. With interest rates low, they anguished over the missed opportunity to do a deficit-financed fiscal package that invested in infrastructure and workers instead, which they believed would lead to faster and more equitable growth.
But to the extent Congress ends up passing a version of the American Jobs Plan that comes close to the initial proposal, the Democrats will end up getting what they wanted after all, basically erasing much of the GOP's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in favor of their own vision. And it will be a decade or more before it's possible to conclude which party's plan did the most for the economy, and which was most popular with the public.