The Hamilton Project: The Past, Present, And Future Of U.S. Tax Policy

The Hamilton Project, Taking on Tax: The Past, Present, and Future:

Tax law is scheduled to change significantly at the end of 2025, setting the stage for rigorous policy debates. If policymakers use the opportunity effectively, Congress can both improve tax policy and help to stabilize the fiscal trajectory. That will require maintaining focus on the priorities of raising additional revenue, making the tax system more progressive, and ensuring that tax policy is efficiently aligned with high-level fiscal policy goals.

On Wednesday, September 27, 2023, The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution convened leaders and experts to discuss the past and the future of tax policy in the United States. The event featured fireside chat between former Speaker Paul Ryan, Peter Orszag of Lazard, and moderator Catherine Rampell of The Washington Post. The forum also included two discussions featuring Kimberly Clausing (University of California, Los Angeles), Wendy Edelberg (The Hamilton Project), Ben Harris (Brookings), Kyle Pomerleau (American Enterprise Institute), Nirupama Rao (University of Michigan), and Natasha Sarin (Yale University).

The event coincided with the release of a wide-ranging tax reform proposal, by Clausing and Sarin, that would raise significant revenue, improve progressivity, and better align the U.S. with global tax policy. In addition, The Hamilton Project released an essay offering principles for assessing proposed reforms.