The richest demographic in the U.S. right now is 55 and up. That’s why there would be more growth in Donald Trump’s “SENIORS SHOULD NOT PAY TAX ON SOCIAL SECURITY!” than in his vastly oversold 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Which is where it gets a little interesting. A recent editorial indicated that Trump has lost the tax cut plot given his push to zero out taxes on Social Security, and it’s rooted in the view that Social Security tax cuts would come at the cost of extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Forget that tax cuts could never be a “cost” as is, but supposedly the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act “was the policy foundation for the strong pre-pandemic U.S. economy.” Which is hard to take seriously, and that’s not an argument against tax cuts.
It’s instead an argument in favor of tax cuts that actually power the savings and investment without which there’s no growth. The 2017 tax cuts were not about economic growth, and the source of that truth can be found in commentary from Phil Gramm, Steve Moore, former Rep. Paul Ryan, and others on the right: they all noted that the 2017 Trump tax cuts did not reduce the tax burden on the rich.