Tax Reform: Reconciling Economic Growth and Fairness

The emerging debate on fundamental tax reform in the United States is focused too narrowly. The key disagreement currently is between promoting economic growth and maintaining fairness via a progressive tax structure. Alarmingly, most of the reform proposals which have gained attention do eliminate the progressivity which has been a long-term hallmark of the federal income tax system. This paper demonstrates that it is possible to achieve both objectives while making basic improvements in the federal revenue structure.