A Pro-Corporate Tax Code Is Anti-Family
January 29, 2024
Taxing corporations improves the lives of families and children.
The Roosevelt Rundown features our top stories of the week.
A mobile billboard advocates higher taxes for Jeff Bezos, whose Amazon has avoided billions of dollars in taxes thanks to pro-corporate tax policies. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
How Cutting Taxes Hurts Social Welfare Policy
For too long, corporate tax policy in the US has been seen by policymakers—incorrectly—as incompatible with economic growth and unrelated to social equity. In a new two-part report series, the Roosevelt Institute explores how political decisions to slash corporate taxes, fueled by decades of neoliberal ideology, have undermined robust social welfare policy.
In the first paper, Emily DiVito and Niko Lusiani of Roosevelt’s corporate power program lay out how the functions of corporate tax—raising revenue, redistributing wealth, restructuring markets, and enhancing democratic representation—can be used to improve the well-being of children and families in the areas of income, wealth, employment, education, childcare, and climate.
The second report, a historical overview, traces the changing narratives about corporate taxation and social welfare from the New Deal era through the Reagan, H.W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, and Trump presidencies. Authored by University of Michigan law professor Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, DiVito, and Lusiani, the report explains how the idea that taxes need to be “cut to grow” the economy harmed child and family well-being.
Read more in:
- A Mapping of the Full Potential of US Corporate Taxation to Enhance Child and Family Well-Being and
- Fifty Years of ‘Cut To Grow’: How Changing Narratives around Corporate Tax Policy Have Undermined Child and Family Well-Being.
What We’re Talking About
Proper IRS funding promotes equality 👏 https://t.co/NWGrcNJpYg
— Roosevelt Institute (@rooseveltinst) January 22, 2024
What We’re Reading
The Government Vacancy That Could Cost West Virginians Billions – by Roosevelt Institute Fellow Kate Aronoff – The New Republic
Top Economic Aide to Biden Pitches ‘Comeback’ in Hard-Hit America – New York Times
The US Needs 22m Acres for the Solar Energy Transition—Here’s What That Looks Like – The Guardian
Biden Has Forgiven Billions in Student Loans. Who Has Gotten the Relief? – The Hill
Both of These Agencies Want a Piece of Microsoft’s Open AI Partnership – Politico