Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Abstract
What follows in this report is an assessment, though not exhaustive, of the central worldviews and set of assumptions driving key US corporate tax reform moments in history—and their consequences for the well-being of children and families in the US. Though political narratives of all kinds are never cleanly chronological (and this remains true of those pertaining to corporate taxation and well-being policies), we aim to build on existing understanding of how dominant narratives come to be and how they, to the extent that they do, drive corporate tax policy outcomes in the US. Looking back over the past 50 years of corporate tax reforms demonstrates just how entrenched the neoliberal narrative around tax cuts has become in policymaking. The supremacy of a “cut-to-grow” mentality has made it difficult for a more expansive, progressive vision of tax reform to break through—contributing to a decades-long stalemate in efforts toward real comprehensive corporate tax reform and hindering the government’s ability to make needed investments in child and family well-being policy. As such, this paper concludes with reflections on the political economy of taxing corporations, and how a more holistic understanding of the revenue and regulatory roles, in particular, of corporate tax policy might help us overcome what has become a 40-year stalemate in efforts toward real reform.
Recommended Citation
Avi-Yonah, Reuven S., Emily DiVito, and Niko Lusiani. Fifty Years of ‘Cut To Grow’: How Changing Narratives around Corporate Tax Policy Have Undermined Child and Family Well-Being. Ann Arbor MI: Roosevelt Institute, 2024.
Comments
© Roosevelt Institute 2024. Originally published as [citation].