Should Congress Raise Taxes To Fight Inflation?
Business Roundtable on March 21, 2022. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP) (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images In a Monday Wall Street Journal column (paywall), President Biden urged Congress to help fight inflation by raising tax rates on the very wealthy and using the money to reduce the deficit. Does that strategy make sense in today’s economic environment? At least in theory, raising taxes could ease inflation. But not necessarily for the reason Biden suggested. Tax hikes enacted this year would not have much immediate impact on government borrowing. But they could slow inflation by reducing consumer demand for goods and services. Big caveats There are two big caveats, however. While Biden is focused on tax hikes on the wealthy and corporations to reduce the deficit, the most direct way to use taxes to slow inflation would be to raise levies on low- and moderate-income households, whose spending habits are most sensitive to changes in incomes. Trouble is, ...