“Because of all these tax cuts -- and especially the corporate cuts -- budget deficits are expected to skyrocket past $1 trillion per year starting in 2022 and stay there. With the national debt over $22 trillion, that means the US will ultimately have to make some hard choices. So enjoy that tax cut, everyone.”
Zachary B. Wolf, CNN

“A few companies have made a big show of opening a new plant in the United States, but the hard data show the 500 largest public companies have used their tax savings to buy back stock far more than they have on capital spending… Trump [also] cut the tax rate on repatriated money and said it would unleash a flood of cash coming home. According to government data, $665 billion has come back so far, a fraction of the roughly $3 trillion many analysts believe is overseas.”
Heather Long, Washington Post

“According to the most recent forecasts, the GOP’s tax cut will ultimately cost $1.9 trillion over a decade… For about that much money, they could have sent a $1,000 check to every worker in America (and adjusted it for inflation) for the next ten years. Heck, they could have included an auto-signed picture of the president to go along with it; instead of a bunch of stories about how nobody realizes they got a tax cut, the headlines would be all about how Americans were spending their Trump Bux… If you’re going to cut people’s taxes, don’t write a bunch of draft bills that make it look like you’re raising them instead. And once you do pass the legislation, make sure people realize they actually got a cut.”
Jordan Weissmann, Slate

“In October 1924, the federal government threw open for public inspection the files that recorded the incomes of American taxpayers, and the amounts they had paid in taxes… Almost a century later, it’s time to revisit the merits of universal public disclosure… Calling for more disclosure may seem discordant at a time of growing concern about privacy. But income taxation is an act of government, not an aspect of private life. Property tax records provide a reasonable model. Local governments disclose the name of the property owner, the value of the property and the amount of taxes owed and paid. The same information should be available for income taxes.”
Binyamin Appelbaum, New York Times

“Norway has been putting out records since 1814; in Sweden, they've been public since 1903. Public tax returns help reduce gender and racial pay disparities, make labor markets more efficient, encourage workers to bargain for higher pay, prevent tax evasion, and create a rich font of data for economists and other researchers. The US ought to give the idea a try.”
Dylan Matthews, Vox