The effects of tax cuts and deregulation 

When there is talk about tax cuts and deregulation, many argue about the effects and its impact on Americans or who it really benefits. There are many articles that talk about the the topic where they state facts and opinions, but you also can’t be believing everything that you read. Credibility and background of the author is important to keep in mind when reading their articles. I conducted some research on the topic and decided to review sources of information on tax cuts and deregulation and their impact on the future of America and these are the steps taken to review the information. 1 left and 2 right side sources were reviewed, and 2 video and 2 scholarly sources. Logos, Ethos, and Pathos were used to review the pieces of information. For Logos, looked for logic, reasoning and facts in the information that were true and had evidence to back it up. For Ethos, looked for credibility or ethics of the writer, producer, or organization that wrote the information. For Pathos, researched for the emotional state of the author and look for it in the information made by the author. Was also seeing if text were biased and what the author chose to leave out of there text and the reason why.

With the Republican party in office, there was issued a tax cut and deregulation that stirred up a lot of controversy about who really benefits from the tax cut and how it it really helps the economy and the future of America. The sources were chosen because they were relevant to the topic and can have a impact on our future as Americans. A left leaning source was reviewed from the Washington Post by Catherine Rampell called “The republican tax cut is a big, fat failure. Another article was reviewed but was a right leaning source found on The Heritage Foundation called “Separating economic facts from fiction on the Trump tax cuts” by Adam Michael. Another right leaning source was taken from the Investor’s Daily Business named “Deregulation Nation: President Trump cuts regulation at record rate” by Terry Jones. Then I reviewed 2 videos that came from a left and right leaning sources. The left leaning video came from CNN Money on YouTube and the right leaning video came from YouTube Fox Business. 2 scholarly articles were reviewed as well and the left leaning source came from the Tax Foundation Conservative that was written by Erica York and the right leaning source came from txt.org.

To begin with, the first article that was reviewed was a article by Catherine Rampell on The Washington Post that was about the problems with the tax cuts that the Trump administration put in place. She is an opinion columnist at The Washington Post. She frequently covers economics and is also a political and economic commentator for CNN and an occasional special correspondent for PBS Newshour. Before joining The Post, she wrote about economics and theater for the New York Times. Rampell has received the Weidenbaum Center Award for Evidence-Based Journalism and is a Gerald Loeb Award finalist. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University. Trump pushed a 1.5 trillion tax cut through Congress last December and has emphasized deregulation and vowed tougher enforcement of trade agreements as ways to boost growth. She stated how “it has achieved none of the things that Republicans promised it would. It didn’t reduce deficits and it didn’t target the middle class as well” (Rampell 2018). The Treasury Department reported that the federal budget deficit swelled by 17 percent, or $113 billion, from fiscal 2017 to 2018. She stated how the tax cut it heavily mistargeted and two-thirds of the law’s benefits went to the top income quintile this past year, according to estimates from the Tax Policy Center. She stating facts and backing it up with evidence for trust worthy sources. She uses a normal tone in her text but seems biased about how she doesn’t like Trump and also seemed to not leave out any sort of material out of the text.

Secondly, a right leaning source was reviewed and was written by Adam Michael and was found on The Heritage Foundation. Adam Michael focuses on tax policy and the federal budget as a Policy Analyst in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. His research focuses on the economics of taxation, international tax competition, and the federal budget. Prior to joining Heritage he was a Program Manager for the Spending and Budget Initiative at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where he worked on a broad range of topics relating to federal fiscal policy. Michel received his MA in economics from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA and also holds a BA in politics from Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA. He talks about what is in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and what is “Tax Reform 2.0,” and why is it important? What does the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act mean for the economy and is the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act just a tax cut for the rich? He says how reforms simplified taxpaying for most Americans, lowered taxes on individuals and businesses, and updated the business tax code. The tax cut 2.0 make much of last year’s tax reform permanent, introduces new simplifications for family saving, and provide a helping hand for new small businesses. The tax cut has the economy in the midst of the longest-running period of businesses adding new jobs, and wages are increase faster than they have since 2009 and the tax cuts are not just benefiting the wealthy. Average taxpayers in every congressional district get a tax cut, and lower-income communities get the largest percentage decreases in their tax bills. Some low-income congressional districts will see their federal income taxes cut by 20 percent or more. Corporate tax cut is benefiting workers significantly because more than 75 percent of business taxes are ultimately passed on to workers in the form of lower wages, workers can expect the biggest economic benefits from business tax reform. He seems to right in a normal tone and seems unbiased as he provides facts and evidence but also talks about the problems and benefits that come with the tax cuts.

Next, another right leaning source that came from the Investors Business Daily called “Deregulation Nation: President Trump cuts regulations at record rate” by Terry Jones. Terry Jones is a associate Editor at Investor’s Business Daily Business and Finance, Opinion and Editorial and also seen in: Investor’s Business Daily, New York Daily news, RealClearPolitics, Connecticut Post, The Coloradoan, Ye Greeley Tribune, RealClearMarkets, Bristol Herald Courier, Enterprise Times. Terry stated that a new report by the American Action Forum says that not only is President Trump meeting his deregulation goals, he’s exceeding them — in some cases, by a large amount. He also says “executive agencies subject to regulatory budget remain on pace to double the administration’s overall saving goal”, and that ‘On an individual basis, 12 of 22 agencies have already met or surpassed their savings target”( Jones 2018). The government aimed for savings of about $686.6 million from deregulation so far this year. Right now, the government has saved some $1.308 billion from 47 separate deregulation actions. He states that under “President Obama growth was averaging below 2%, his was the worst administration for growth in postwar history.The Trump economy, by contrast, is today growing at just below 3% a year. Median annual household income stands at $62,175 currently, the highest level since 2000. Unemployment in June matched its lowest level in half a century. In short, the economy is operating on an entirely different level than during the Obama years. He supports his points with evidence but is very biased in that the Obama administration performance was poor. He has a normal tone throughout the text.

Moreover, 1 left and 1 right leaning video were reviewed, one from CNN and the other from Fox.. The first video by CNN was a left leaning source by Jake Tapper. Jake Tapper is an American journalist and author. As of 2018, Tapper is the Chief Washington Correspondent for CNN And went to school at Dartmouth College. He worked for ABC News. The White House Correspondents’ Association honored his work as Senior White House Correspondent with ABC News with three Merriman Smith Memorial Awards for broadcast journalism. He stated “ that the entire 1.5 trillion tax cut being virtually paid for by revenue increase and economic growth stated my Larry Kudlow being false”(Tapper 2018). It would only add 1.9 trillion to the deficit through 2018-2028 with economic growth being included. They also talk about how if the 4.1 quarterly growth must be kept yearly if Trump is to keep 4.0% economic growth rate annually which is highly unlikely according to a scholar at Conservative American enterprise institute. The video does a good job of talking about the points and using evidence to say if the claims are true or not. Doesn’t seem biased and has a normal tone throughout the text. The other piece of text that was reviewed was video from Fox website. They talk with Kevin Hassett about the claims he made in a Washington interview and he says how many predicted 2% look at 3.5% and 1.5% gives so much revenue in the long run. Corporate revenue being down means more GDP growth. He also suggests how both parties should meet up and talk about the long run deficit. He answers the questions but doesn’t really state where he gets his facts. He sounds skeptical and unsure about his information.

Finally 1 left leaning source and 1 right leaning source were reviewed. The right leaning source came from Tax Foundation Conservative by Erica York and was called “Impact On economy and corporate tax cut”. Erica York is an Analyst with the Center for Federal Tax Policy at Tax Foundation. She previously interned at Tax Foundation with the Center for State Tax Policy in Summer 2016. Her analysis has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and other publications. She holds a master’s degree in Economics from Wichita State University and an undergraduate degree in Business Administration and Economics from Sterling (KS) College. She mentions that 1 of the most significant provisions of the tax cut and jobs act is the permanently lower federal corporate income tax rate, which decreased from 35% to 21%. She also talks about new investments will increase the size of the capital stock and new law will be a 1.7% larger economy, leading to 1.5% higher wages, a 4.8% larger capital stock and 33,900 jobs in the long run full-time. She talks about the benefits and benefits for the future with evidence but doesn’t really talk about the many problems that the left leaning does bring up like if the tax cut is aimed for the middle class. She has a normal tone throughout the text and but does seem to leave out some problems that liberals bring up. My second scholar source was a left leaning source from tcf.org called “Proposed tax plan is ripe for abuse” by Reuven Avi-Yonah. On the tcf.org site, no information was provided on the writer but is a credible website. He stated that “according to a tax policy analysis, 80% of the tax cuts would go to the rich and reducing revenue by $2.4 trillion over the next decade”(Yonah 2018). With tax cuts totaling $5.8 trillion and only 3.2 trillion is added tax revenue”. The tax cut would only add to the deficit and would not be effective as direct government spending is adding to it. He has some points that but doesn’t really state where he’s getting the information. He has a normal tone throughout the text and seems to leave out the pros of the tax cuts.

In conclusion, many sources can be found on the topic of tax cuts and deregulation but not all of them are as credible as others. There are certain ways to do it but using pathos, Logos and Ethos is really effective. Being able to have outline on what to look for, like there Education so how credible they are. It’s also works with videos as well and can help out when figuring out the credibility of an author. The topic is important to me and other Americans and or futures because we’re the ones that are gonna have to live with these changes. Many sources were reviewed but some were more credible than others and other chose to leave out certain information but most of them had a normal tone but a couple were biased. So in the end, it’s important to not believe everything u read on the internet and to ask yourself if it credible.