, Columnist
These Are No Reagan Tax Cuts
Contrasting the reforms of '81 and '86 with Trump's self-serving plan.
It was a simpler time.
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The Trump tax plan is out, and it is grand in scope, though scanty on key detail. The number of tax brackets will be collapsed to three -- with rates of 12 percent, 25 percent and 35 percent -- and the standard deduction will be increased. Corporate taxes will be eased, and estate taxes will be eliminated. Naturally, such ambitious tax-cuttery has invited comparisons to Reagan.
All very well, but to which Reagan are we comparing him? The man who oversaw swashbuckling supply-side rate decreases in 1981? Or the steward of the good-government, technocratic reforms of 1986, which reduced the tax code to two low brackets, while eliminating so many deductions that tax collections didn’t even fall?