ECONOMY/TAXES/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump says the perfect medicine for the economy’s sluggish growth is a big tax cut.
Mr. Trump and his advisers say that leaving more money in the hands of businesses and consumers will lead to more spending and investment, lifting economic growth, which has been stuck in a 2-percent-a-year rut.
Indeed, the Trump administration insists its tax plan will be so good for growth that the federal government won’t even lose any revenue. The government will simply get a smaller share of a much larger pie.
But a range of economists, both conservative and liberal, are highly skeptical that a tax cut is the cure for what ails the economy. They say Mr. Trump has little opportunity to increase economic growth in the next few years because the economy is already growing about as fast as it can. The government’s focus, they say, should be on raising the economy’s speed limit, for example, by encouraging investments that increase productivity.
Indeed, by some estimates, Mr. Trump’s plan could reduce economic growth — although such estimates necessarily involve a large dollop of guesswork because the administration has provided few details.”
-Binyamin Applebaum, “Trump Tax Plan Will Not Bolster Growth, Economists Say,” The New York Times online, May 12, 2017