New taxes will hit America’s rich. Old loopholes will protect them
The first big tax rise in nearly three decades is just a first step
THE LAST time Congress passed a significant tax increase, Seinfeld won an Emmy award, Nirvana unplugged their guitars for MTV and lawmakers were pondering whether to vote for NAFTA. Early in Bill Clinton’s presidency, in 1993, Congress raised personal and corporate income taxes. Since then, almost every tax bill in Washington has lowered them. In aggregate America is now among the most lightly taxed countries in the developed world. Its overall tax-to-GDP ratio was 24.5% in 2019, nine percentage points below the average in the OECD, a group of mostly rich countries (see chart).
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “From whatever source derived”
United States October 2nd 2021
- New taxes will hit America’s rich. Old loopholes will protect them
- The Republican response to an absurd recount in Arizona underscores a threat to democracy
- Americans have forgotten how their government shaped Haiti
- The new Supreme Court term is about to begin
- The jail on Rikers Island is both appalling and generously funded
- Gentrifying prisons in America
- America’s green energy industry takes on the fossil-fuel lobby
From the October 2nd 2021 edition
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