Greedflation didn't happen

Happy Labor Day. But remember, unions didn’t create the weekend or the shorter workweek. Economic growth did that. Thank economic prosperity for your free time.

This chart shows a 200-year story of progress. Let's not go backwards.

New: Harris will propose in NH tomorrow to supercharge a small biz deduction to $50,000 from $5k, paired with establishing a goal for 25 million small business applications for a first term. Under Biden admin so far, there has been record 19 million small biz apps

Harris proposes increasing the deduction for startup expenses from $5,000 to $50,000. In 2010, Congress temporarily expanded the deduction to $10,000 along with the phase-out threshold. That scored at $230 million by JCT. axios.com/2024/09/03/har…

Embracing the "greedflation" stuff is poison. Harris needs to drop it and never talk about it again.

Exempt tips from tax? Great stuff here from Douglas Holtz-Eakin on why it's a bad idea:

How national security has transformed economic policy - on.ft.com/4g8VZoh via Financial Times

If you're wondering the origin of "no tax on tips" Douglas Holtz-Eakin has you covered. It's not complicated. It's simple. And dumb.

⚡NEW: 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐲 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐓𝐚𝐱 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 Lawmakers should consider compliance costs—not just tax liabilities—when evaluating reforms to business income taxation. hubs.ly/Q02NDV6p0 Will McBride

New from us: Harris is set to pare back the Biden capital-gains rate increase, which called for a 44.6% top rate for people with income >$1M. wsj.com/politics/polic…

Kyle is correct that Score Knowers think of 28% as roughly revenue-maximizing capgains rate without structural changes to taxing gains at death. The story notes that 28% could change. We have not reported whether that includes NIIT or if she's abandoning those other proposals.

Unless Congress acts, Americans are in for a tax hike in 2026. Find out how the TCJA expiration or extension will affect taxpayers like yourself with our 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 𝐓𝐚𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫: hubs.ly/Q02NDTPl0

Just released analysis of Harris’s billionaire minimum tax on unrealized capital gains by my colleagues Erica York and Garrett Watson. Bottom line, “it would reduce saving, entrepreneurship, and economic dynamism.” taxfoundation.org/blog/harris-un…

GOLDMAN: “.. We estimate that each 1 percentage point change in the statutory domestic tax rate would shift S&P 500 EPS by slightly less than 1%, or approximately $2 of 2025 S&P 500 EPS, all else equal. .. The proposed corporate tax changes could directly shift S&P 500 earnings

The sales tax is the second-largest source of state tax revenue and an important source of local tax revenue, but decades of base erosion threaten the tax’s share of overall revenue and have prompted years of countervailing rate increases. hubs.ly/Q02NPQDy0 Jared Walczak

This is the closest presidential campaign 60+ years. The race has been consistently close in a way I've never seen. If the polling is off by a single point in the key swing states, the winner would flip. The bottom line is this election is up for grabs with 2 months to go.

Exempting Social Security benefits from income tax would increase the budget deficit by about $1.6 trillion over 10 years and accelerate the insolvency of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. hubs.ly/Q02NF3WT0 Garrett Watson