Critics say distributional weighting in benefit-cost analysis is impractical But Dan Acland @goldmanschool.bsky.social proves otherwise—showing how weighting can overcome bias against low income & bridge divide b/w equity & efficiency equitablegrowth.org/research-pap... @equitablegrowth.bsky.social

Overlooked tax justice win in Seattle! And possible model for federal reform: Give a break to the 90% of (actually small!) businesses (including independent contractors who file as businesses) that make less than $2 million in gross receipts each year, while raising rates on the larger firms.

Colorado is doubling down on our super popular program to tax the rich and pay for free school meals for every single public school kid. Universal programs have herd immunity. Tax the rich and use the money to give everyone else something popular.

@chusak.bsky.social shows that expiring Affordable Care Act premium tax credits--which Dems are fighting to extend--mean more to true small business owners than so-called "small business tax relief" included in this summer's Republican megabill, which went almost entirely to the rich

In a new analysis, Chris Bangert-Drowns & Chiara Chanoi measure workers’ exposure to AI and assess how it affects wages. They find AI exposure is higher among people with higher levels of education who work in high-paying jobs, regardless of gender or race. 🔗:

Opposition to the qualified small business stock exclusion crosses ideological lines! @kylepomerleau.bsky.social & me on why QSBS-which Republicans just expanded-is inefficient, unfair & should be scrapped, or at least reformed to fix glaring defects. www.taxnotes.com/tax-notes-to... @taxnotes.com

CBO confirms that the retroactive corporate tax cuts included in the Republican budget bill this summer delivered a multi-billion dollar windfall to the largest multinationals this fiscal year. www.cbo.gov/publication/...

Great insights (and fun acronym reinterpretation!) from @itep.org. States should follow California's lead and decouple from the federal Qualified Small Business Stock exclusion. It sure doesn't seem like early-stage tech investment in CA has suffered without it... itep.org/qsbs-trump-t...

Why would some business interests prefer for Congress to fly blind in tax policymaking? 🤔 Very good take from @howardgleckman.bsky.social @taxpolicycenter.bsky.social:

Ever wonder what brides & grooms really mean when they recite their wedding vows? My attempt at translation: weeklyhumorist.com/the-jaded-we... "I got really lucky and am marrying someone completely out of my league" = “I will be spending the next 20 years paranoid about you cheating on me”

#DC DEEP TODAY… Marching to the White House 🏡

It’s dog days of summer, but tax scholarship doesn't take a vacation! New study out today by Balkir, Saez, Yagan, and Zucman finds 400 richest Americans pay just 23.8% in total (federal, state, foreign) taxes, less than the 30% paid by the average American. www.nber.org/papers/w34170 🧵

"We want them gone today." As Republican states send National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., organizer Keya Chatterjee of @freedcproject.bsky.social joins calls to end Trump's federal takeover of the nation's capital.

This is an opportunity for organizing... And for reminding/educating fellow Americans across the country, who will be reading news stories about yesterday's events, about the 700,000+ disenfranchised Americans living in DC without representation in Congress.

DC residents and allies!! It’s time to turn your anger at the federal takeover of law enforcement into action with @freedcproject.bsky.social 🧵

Economic threats ahead, courtesy of your president

My terrible ten! The 10 worst policies in the budget bill Trump signed earlier this month. 🧵

Even before Senate made them worse, OBBBA's Medicaid & SNAP cuts projected to be economic equivalent of losing: 97% of food manufacturing in New Jersey's 7th district (Kean) 85% of farming in NE-2 (Bacon) 69% of hospitality (largest private industry in district!) in CO-3 (Hurd) ...

Americans will pay more due to cuts to health care and other services. Future generations will pay for the multitrillion-dollar debt increase. And what for? Massive, expensive tax cuts to the wealthiest few.

A reminder that even the House version of the SNAP and Medicaid cuts would be the economic equivalent of losing 60% of the oil and gas extraction industry in Alaska. equitablegrowth.org/medicaid-and...

@kylepomerleau.bsky.social & me on the many shortcomings of #OBBBA Including the particularly egregious but little publicized expansion of qualified small business stock exclusion Both QSBS & bill overall are: - Not pro-growth! - Regressive! - Expensive! www.concordcoalition.org/facing-the-f...

@hboushey.bsky.social & me on why we shouldnt be surprised that massive inequality-exploding tax cut wont grow economy Pro (equitable!) growth tax policies abound, including taxing ultra-rich, but #OBBBA moves in wrong direction @equitablegrowth.bsky.social @msnbc.com www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

NEW: The Senate version of One Big Beautiful Bill is one big ugly transfer of wealth from low-income families to the rich. Americans struggling to get by will pay more for groceries & health care so the highest income families can get big tax cuts. This isn’t shared sacrifice.

Medicaid & SNAP cuts don’t just hurt beneficiaries, they hurt our local economies (h/t @robertmanduca.bsky.social): Would be like losing 60% of oil & gas extraction industry in Alaska All textile & furniture manufacturing in North Carolina All logging & paper manufacturing in Maine...

"This record reveals a consistent pattern. The tax cuts did not deliver on the promises of their advocates. In fact, they often achieved exactly the opposite, worsening the debt and exacerbating income inequality.” www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/u...

Eye-popping analysis here! Once Americans learn about the unprecedented regressivity in the reconciliation bill, they oppose 78-11. Even Republicans oppose 61-23 (after initially supporting before learning the distributional effect of the tax & spending cuts).

NYT found the “big beautiful bill” would be the largest transfer from the poor to the rich in a single law since at least 1990. In fact, it would be the largest transfer *ever.* Reagan’s low-income cuts were MUCH smaller - and his tax cuts were done separately. And before him, nothing comes close.

What these changes look like in raw dollar terms, per CBO analysis of GOP budget bill: Typical household in bottom income decile loses ~$1,600 annually. Typical household in richest income decile gains ~$12,000 annually.

Are the extremely wealthy paying their fair share of taxes? Or at least as much as the rest of us? Seems like an important question to ask before gifting them another massive tax cut! The answer from @pdriessentax.bsky.social & me may surprise you. THREAD equitablegrowth.org/the-funny-ma...

Nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation analysis of expansion of pass-through deduction (Sec 199A) in the reconciliation bill confirms what we already suspected: By far the biggest winners are the very rich, not small businesses. www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/do... @senatefinance.bsky.social

Great analysis by Hapgood @politico.com, w/ insights from @kylepomerleau.bsky.social: Costly, inefficient & regressive 199A deduction, a giveaway to Mike Bloomberg & other wealthy business owners, proves so-called "budget hawks" are not serious abt reducing deficit www.politico.com/newsletters/...

I volunteer as a tutor w/ Northstar, a nonprofit that provides free 1-on-1 tutoring & mentoring to students in DC & PG County. We’re raising funds to support more students! If you believe in education equity & want to make real impact, please consider donating: givebutter.com/vffGBu/mtple...

Great @equitablegrowth.bsky.social essay by Yotam Margalit, especially these nuggets: In Norway, military service—via shared rooming w/ minorities—increases trust in immigrants In UK, communities that lost local pubs exhibit more support for populist candidates equitablegrowth.org/countering-r...

Despite House leaders using budget gimmicks, double-speak, and late-night committee meetings (1am tonight!) to conceal the truth abt reconciliation bill... Economic analysts from across ideological spectrum have now run the numbers and the consensus is…not a pretty picture! 🧵

JCT: Tax bill currently being debated in Ways & Means would INCREASE taxes on lowest income quintile by 454.8% (not a typo!) in 2031. www.jct.gov/publications... This is BEFORE any negative impacts on this group from Medicaid & SNAP cuts. All to help finance tax cuts for the rich.

Passthrough lobbyists weren't even asking for an increase in this deduction (at least not publicly)! www.nfib.com/stopsmallbiz... Michael Bloomberg, the Uihleins, Diane Hendricks, and their ilk are surely popping bottles in celebration...

The House Ways & Means Committee is poised to mark-up the tax bill this afternoon, and it’s even worse than we feared. There are so many bad provisions, it’s hard to focus on just a few, but here are the worst, imho. 🧵

The House Ways and Means tax bill released today is skewed in favor of rich people, is even more costly than the original 2017 law, and fails to deliver for working-class families and small businesses. A thread 🧵

Medicaid saves a lot of lives. And it's a cost-effective investment too. www.nber.org/papers/w33719

These 7 corporations were allowed to keep tax breaks that they had publicly admitted would likely be found illegal if the IRS had investigated them. Meanwhile, the Trump administration wants to further gut the resource-strapped agency.

Hope to see you next week as we discuss perhaps the most pressing question facing economic policymakers in the US and across the globe!

Always happy to see new ideas for ways to increase taxes on the rich, which would be good for our economy and democracy!

The administration is moving the rule. Official public (that's us!!) comment period is open. Friends of BLS has resources making it super easy & efficient for you to: 1) submit evidence to the official record & 2) communicate to your federal reps #econsky www.friendsofbls.org/updates/2025...

🧵: Congress is back from recess this week, and all signs point to Republicans using the work period until Memorial Day to push through a bad bill extending expiring Trump tax cuts (mostly helping the rich) and cutting Medicaid & SNAP (mostly hurting low- and middle-income workers).

At this point, who could possibly deny that inequality is an urgent social problem?! #WearTheShirts

This is obviously wrong. Wealthy people would pay the tax, which would raise hundreds of billions of $$, and go on living their life ... just like they did in the 1990s & 2010s when the top rate was just as high. Even the state tax flight claim is a myth. equitablegrowth.org/taxing-the-r...

"Reconsidering commitment to tax cuts for the rich"* ** *** **** * Except for the tax cut for the heirs of the wealthiest estates **Except for the tax cut for passthrough biz, half of which goes to millionaires *** Except for corporate tax cuts about a third of which goes to the top 1% **** Etc.

In honor of #TaxDay, check out the following pieces from our archives featuring research on taxes, inequality, growth, the #TCJA, and more! A 🧵: First, @dsmitch28.bsky.social breaks down the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and its true beneficiaries, years later. equitablegrowth.org/six-years-la...

During an already very dark time in US history, I unfortunately have more bad news this #TaxDay2025: Despite what some say, the tax bill moving through Congress right now will make everything worse! 🧵 1/ #BillionaireTaxBailout

"The US doesn’t need to resort to either punishing or joining tax havens such as Ireland. Instead, we should start by fixing our America-last tax code." Read @zorkamilin.bsky.social's new piece in @bloombergtax.com on the need for int'l tax reforms to tackle offshoring.