The GOP’s Tax Bill Is Exactly Wrong for This Economic Moment
With a recession looming and the deficit growing, now is not the time to cut taxes for the wealthy and programs for the poor.
Sign of the times.
Photographer: Leigh Vogel/Getty Images North AmericaThere are two distinct threats to the US economy of 2025. One is the president’s shoot-first-ask-questions-later trade war, which has rattled both consumers and the bond market, not to mention economists. The other is the government’s projected annual deficit of $1.9 trillion, despite more than three years of low unemployment and consistent growth.
The first threat makes a recession more likely, and the second would make a recession harder to deal with. At the risk of crying wolf in the face of an economy that has yet to show any tangible signs of weakness, allow me to say: The House Republicans’ tax bill is so ill-suited to the moment that the most charitable conclusion is that they simply do not know how to manage the economy.