Chapter 13. Restore the Power to Tax

Rebuilding revenue, clarity, and trust in democratic finance

“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes… to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States.”

—U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8

There was a time when taxation had only one job: to fund the government. From the first Congress onward, taxes were used to raise revenue to defend the republic, build public goods, and pay the nation’s debts. There were no deductions for car loans or childcare, no credits for renewable energy or oil drilling. Taxes were not used to manipulate behavior or reward political friends. They were used to ensure the government had the money it needed to function—and nothing more.

That changed as the economy grew more complex. The income tax, made constitutional in 1913, allowed the federal government to expand its reach—and to begin using taxes not only to fund itself, but to shape society. Over the next hundred years, tax incentives were used to support national goals: homeownership, education, energy development, charitable giving, retirement savings, and more. In time, we could identify seven widely accepted reasons for tax preferences. Each one was designed to serve the public interest.

These seven categories are worth naming. First, to reduce poverty—through child tax credits, earned income supports, and basic exemptions. Second, to encourage work—by rewarding income from labor and supporting those who seek jobs. Third, to build national capacity—investing in education, infrastructure, public health, and broad civic participation. Fourth, to accelerate innovation—by reducing risk and supporting research. Fifth, to protect the environment and public health—through incentives for clean energy, clean water, and sustainable industry. Sixth, to strengthen families—through marriage, childrearing, and caregiving supports. And seventh, to prevent wealth hoarding—by taxing large estates and capital windfalls.

Each of these purposes is legitimate. Each, when structured properly, can help build a stronger, more just society. But in recent decades, two new categories have emerged—ones that serve no national purpose at all. The first is what we might call the pure giveaway: tax deductions or credits that are performative, regressive, or entirely untethered from economic need. The second is actively harmful policy: tax changes that increase inequality, sabotage climate efforts, or punish political opposition. These final two categories were not accidents. They were introduced deliberately—overwhelmingly by Republican leadership.

The evidence is not abstract. In 2017, Republicans passed the most regressive tax bill in modern history, cutting the corporate rate from 35% to 21% and concentrating 83% of the long-term benefits among the wealthiest Americans. In 2025, Trump’s second-term “Big Beautiful Bill” proposed to make those cuts permanent—while adding giveaways like the car loan interest deduction, “Trump Accounts” for children, and expanded deductions that primarily help the wealthy. At the same time, it gutted climate incentives, imposed new taxes on immigrants and universities, and tied federal tax enforcement to ideological priorities like banning state AI regulation.

What these policies have in common is simple: they do not fund government. They do not reduce poverty. They do not serve the public interest. They are giveaways to political allies and hand grenades thrown at institutional opponents. Some provisions are designed to seem generous—a child tax credit here, a tip tax exemption there—but these benefits are often temporary, inadequate, and offset by deeper cuts. The real changes are structural: upward redistribution of wealth, sabotage of public investment, and the deliberate dismantling of fiscal capacity.

This is not just bad economics. It is strategic sabotage. Every tax giveaway that adds to the deficit becomes an excuse to later cut Social Security, education, or Medicaid. Every assault on clean energy is a gift to oil and gas. Every symbolic tax credit that fails to reach the poor is another step toward public cynicism. And every page of a tax code filled with distortions is a step away from democratic trust. We now have a tax system that is simultaneously complex, unfair, inefficient, and structurally self-defeating.

It doesn’t have to be this way. The first step is to restore the original purpose of taxation: to raise revenue. That means separating taxes from subsidies. A tax bill should not contain education handouts, corporate giveaways, or ideological poison pills. A tax bill should ask: how much money do we need to run the government? And how do we raise it fairly? All other debates—about spending, incentives, or social investment—should happen elsewhere, in spending bills, subject to the same budget limits.

This reform would bring four immediate benefits. First, it would simplify the tax code. A clear, progressive rate structure—paired with a standard deduction that sets the “zero tax line”—would reduce both compliance costs and political gamesmanship. Fewer brackets, fewer exemptions, no gimmicks. Most Americans could file in minutes.