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If You're Going to Do Social Policy Through the Tax Code, Do it Right |
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Center on Budget and Policy Priorities The most contentious issues in tax policy are not going to be settled in the next two years. The proper level of progressivity of taxes and the doctrinal debate over consumption and income taxes are unlikely to be settled in the next two years either. Building bipartisan trust for tax reform may require eschewing a grand vision and instead first focusing on a major change that is ripe for the picking: reforming tax expenditures. Unlike discretionary or mandatory spending, most of those tax expenditures are in the form of tax deductions. For years, a wide range of tax analysts from Gene Steuerle to Kevin Hassett to Bill Gale have written about the benefits of shifting from deductions to uniform, refundable tax credits. The tax code has a profound effect on housing, healthcare, charitable giving, saving, and many other aspects of life.
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