Michael R. Strain, Columnist

Republicans Need Tax Principles. Like These.

Reforms should be guided by big-picture goals. For example, the system should treat comparable taxpayers similarly.

October 3, 2017 at 11:00 AM UTC

Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is director of economic policy studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It).”

Better goals, please.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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The debate over the tax reform framework released by Republican congressional leaders and the administration of President Donald Trump has rightly focused on the implications of its details — some known, some not — for the middle class, the rich, and the deficit.

If these details are the trees, then what is the forest? What big-picture goals should the GOP leaders be trying to accomplish with tax reform? What principles should they be trying to advance?