Trump Was Right to Prioritize America’s Competitiveness Over Inequality
More than two years ago, President Donald Trump overhauled the U.S. tax code, giving the Republican Party its biggest legislative accomplishment of the 21st century. Serving on the White House Council of Economic Advisers, I helped articulate the vision for the corporate tax cuts and reforms.
Even before the law passed, critics argued, quite vocally, that the cuts would increase the deficit and expand inequality. But these critics failed to grapple with the Trump administration’s overarching goal in cutting the corporate rate: to enable American workers and firms to compete against their foreign counterparts. “When our workers have a level playing field, which they didn’t have, they can compete and win against anyone in the world,” Trump in 2018 in Ohio, a state where workers have historically suffered the costs of globalization. “And that goes for our companies. But we were forcing our companies out.” As officials try to bring the economy back to normal, they would do well to remember this vision.
