The pernicious reality of the Rubio-Lee tax plan

The GOP senators' plan does the right thing for American businesses. It does the wrong thing for much of the middle class.

Mike Lee, Marco Rubio
(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Mike Lee recently released a tax reform proposal that is a curious mix of principled pro-growth measures and populist middle-class relief. Where it sticks to principle, it is great. But where it veers into populism, the plan collapses into incoherence.

The senators' plan is a first stab at translating the reform conservative vision (which I wrote about here) into a governing agenda for the GOP. Hence, it is hardly surprising that avowed reformocons jumped quickly to praise it. Ramesh Ponnuru declared it the most pro-growth plan since Calvin Coolidge's presidency, and something that Republicans should "learn to love." Yuval Levin seconded that sentiment. Reihan Salam noted that the plan's basic political bargain — coupling pro-growth policies with middle-class tax cuts — offered a sterling example of conservative political entrepreneurship.

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Shikha Dalmia

Shikha Dalmia is a visiting fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University studying the rise of populist authoritarianism.  She is a Bloomberg View contributor and a columnist at the Washington Examiner, and she also writes regularly for The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous other publications. She considers herself to be a progressive libertarian and an agnostic with Buddhist longings and a Sufi soul.