Meaningful Tax Reform: Is a "Main Street"-Focused Alternative the Best Path Forward?

While all sides agree that the U.S. tax code needs an overhaul, there are significant disagreements about the primary goals of tax reform and the best means to achieve them. Jeffrey H. Anderson’s Main Street Tax Plan attempts to advance the tax reform debate by laying out a proposal, based on clear objectives, that can benefit everyday Americans.

The Main Street Tax Plan aims to spur economic growth, improve the lives of American workers, and increase fiscal responsibility. The Tax Foundation found that the plan would expand the size of the U.S. economy by $2 trillion within a decade (in the ballpark of growth generated by the Reagan and Kennedy tax cuts); benefit the average American twice as much as the top one percent; and raise revenues by $679 billion while cutting taxes (as taxes on increased growth would exceed lost revenue from the tax cuts themselves). In addition, the plan would simplify the tax code, end the marriage penalty, and make it easier to reform Medicare.

On March 30, Hudson Institute hosted a discussion on tax reform featuring the Tax Foundation’s Kyle Pomerleau, AEI’s Alan Viard, the Tax Policy Center’s Eric Toder, the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s Henry Olsen, and the plan’s author, Hudson’s Jeffrey Anderson. They assessed the merits and limitations of Anderson’s proposal and its prospects for providing a way forward to meaningful tax reform.