Tax Policy Center

tax framing

Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

Would Stimulus Payments Have Been Bigger If Trump And Democrats Called Them Tax Relief?

One of the very oddest things about the bizarre debate over whether to increase the latest round of direct government payments from $600 per person...
January 5, 2021Howard Gleckman
: TaxVox

Bye Bye Tax Reform, Hello Tax Relief

On Sunday, top presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway made an important rhetorical pivot: The Trump Administration may no longer be pushing for tax cuts or even...
January 24, 2017Howard Gleckman
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms: TaxVox

"I was framed!" Or, the Case of the Tax Policy Overpowered by Words

The other day, a Daily Deduction reader asked why I used the phrase “tax relief” as a synonym for “tax cuts.” He suggested that “relief” is a loaded term that implies taxes are too high and therefore bad, and that tax cuts, in turn, are good. That hadn’t occurred to me.
August 3, 2016Renu Zaretsky