Congressional tax hearing tomorrow morning with @usprogressives.bsky.social task force
You'll hear @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social (@rooseveltinstitute.org) @kristencrowell.bsky.social (@fobaction.bsky.social) @chusak.bsky.social (@americanprogress.bsky.social) Liz Watson (@afscme.bsky.social) + me
Despite repeated Trump promises, Americans aren't getting a $1,000 boost to their tax refunds this year. Here's the numbers.
+$335 boost this year, barely more than the +105 last year
+$335 is nowhere close to +1,000, or to rising tariff and gas costs
www.americanprogress.org/article/the-...
Isn't the NY Fed's survey of consumer expectations what you're looking for? www.newyorkfed.org/microeconomi...
Seems pretty bad!
The triumph of congestion pricing also offers a larger reminder: Government, done right, has immense power to improve people’s lives. Many Americans have grown cynical of government, and they are right to be disappointed about its frequent failure to deliver results in the 21st century. But the answer cannot be allowing the private market and pursuit of profits to dominate American life. Leaders should instead take political risks, as officials in New York did, to create programs that can deliver tangible results.
That congestion pricing is working -- like, really really working! -- is important for the larger effort to restore faith in govt. Take big swings, get big results that people can actually feel. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/27/o...
True! On some level, its not rocket science
That's why I set down the pure tax policy and wrote out this plan: how to create 1 million new homes
Taxes aren't a big cost-of-living concern, but we can use tax policy to address voters' actual biggest concerns
www.americanprogress.org/article/1-si...
Econ policymakers should study this poll: what do voters actually want them to focus on?
Overwhelmingly, young voters say: housing
Older voters say: health care
all ages say: food and other necessities
retirement/transp/education are in there but nothing else really matters
I'm just imagining Dave McCormick's wife demanding to see his ID whenever he comes into her bedroom
There are so many policy levers we can pull to address the #housing crisis—here's one such idea:
1 Simple Tax Policy To Create Nearly 1 Million New Multifamily Homes www.americanprogress.org/article/1-si... by @chusak.bsky.social via @americanprogress.bsky.social @taxpolicycenter.bsky.social
Thanks! The industry is facing a lot of headwinds with immigration, tariffs and higher interest rates.
Office conversions would definitely get a boost under this. Whether its enough?--we hope so. Obviously there's a lot to be done on legalizing apartments in more areas too
One policy idea certainly cant solve every problem (as we acknowledge many times!), but it can be part of the solution.
I think the evidence we cite is very strong on the relationship of supply to rents. For ex:
Great question! This proposal rewards developers who build more housing--we're trying to get them to do something socially beneficial
We look at data from places that have recently expanded their rental housing supply vs places that havent. Extra supply benefit renters, who get lower costs
Really interesting proposal from Corey, who is deeply knowledgeable on tax policy & worth following.
The problem for housing is the issues stem from state/local, so there’s little we can fix at the federal level. Short of directly building housing, this is probably the most bang for buck we can do.
Hi Jim, we study the 1980s and talk about it extensively in this report!
Post-1986 passive loss rules largely take care of this concern, as does 163(j) interest deduction limits (which we propose to expand!)
The policy area is different than in the 80s and we can learn from it
Economists have studied the 1980s changes and found that they:
-decreased how many apartments are built and
-increased long-term rents by 10-15%.
Reversing that would go a long way toward solving the housing crisis, with one. simple. change.
www.americanprogress.org/article/1-si...
Is this a good use of taxpayer funds?
LIHTC is the largest current federal tax housing supply subsidy.
Research shows $1M invested in LIHTC, gives: 1 new (income-restricted) home. 🏡
TPC’s model shows that every $1M in depreciation relief gives 5 new homes! 🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡
Using a version of TPC’s microsim model, we score this proposal, how many homes would be created, and show where the homes would be by county across the country! I’m really proud of this map:
(due to Thomas' great work)
How do we know? We did briefly did a version of this in the 1980s and it caused a boom in home building. Apartment building has never recovered since, contributing to our housing shortage
Imagine all the homes we could have now
Currently, tax depreciation for builders of apartments happens slowly, over 27.5 years. But if we sped it up, economic evidence shows that we would get more investment in housing and more homes built, soon!
Tax policy FTW!
New from myself and Thomas Brosy @taxpolicycenter.bsky.social : A proposal to create 1 million new homes!
The housing shortage is causing skyrocketing rents. We need something to build more homes, fast. This is how:
www.americanprogress.org/article/1-si...
-Married couple making $32k gets nothing, $0
-Married couple making $90k--about median HH income-- gets $4,000
-Married couple making $600k -- gets $15,000
Even assuming @booker.senate.gov pays for this, ($7T+ cost!!) it is a regressive tax cut which does nothing on healthcare, housing food, etc
“This is not a progressive tax plan,” Corey Husak, a tax policy expert with the Center for American Progress, told HuffPost in an interview.
Taxes aren't primarily a punishment for people we dislike. They are a mechanism to fund the programs that make the country less unfair. The govt lifts more than 30 million people out of poverty each year. We can and should do better than that, and we need tax revenue for that.
Hearing here featuring @neal.house.gov
waysandmeans.house.gov/event/full-c...
House Rs promised an average $1,000 bump to tax refunds this year--> But no credible estimate agrees. Real estimates are $331-$748. Current IRS data shows refunds on track to increase by...$330 pp
Most of that "average increase" is for the top 😒. Most Americans under $100k will see no refund bump
RM Neal @waysmeanscmte.bsky.social highlights something I've written about with the IRS "ceo" this morning-Ways and Means Republicans are wrong about tax refunds
www.americanprogress.org/article/cont...
OBBBA is a tax giveaway to the wealthy at the expense of the poor. Analysis here from @chusak.bsky.social:
www.americanprogress.org/article/7-wa...
Everyone should check out Bobby and Jared's new piece on what happened to our debt since 2000/2012. Its bad.
Biggest takeaway and graph here
Line graph showing both revenues and spending falling behind old projections.
The Bush tax cuts and the Trump tax cuts are entirely to blame for our fiscal gap.
Entirely? Spending projections are down relative to old projections where we didn't have a fiscal gap, not up. That is, relative to projections where there was no problem, spending is down. So it's all revenue loss.