Side-by-side analysis of what each approach would mean for your paycheck, your business, and the national debt.
We're a policy platform with 50 researched positions on every major issue. This page compares tax approaches across parties — but there's much more to explore.
The US tax code is over 6,500 pages long, and the gap between what it promises and what it delivers has never been wider. The top marginal income tax rate has fallen from 91% in the 1950s to 37% today. The effective corporate tax rate — what companies actually pay after deductions and loopholes — averages roughly 13%, despite a statutory rate of 21%. Meanwhile, the bottom 50% of earners hold just 2.6% of the nation's wealth, while the top 1% hold 31%. The national debt has reached $35 trillion. Something is fundamentally broken in how America collects and distributes revenue.
The three major approaches to tax reform differ at the philosophical level. Republicans believe lower taxes — particularly on businesses and investment income — stimulate economic growth that benefits everyone. Democrats believe the wealthy should pay more and that targeted credits should help working families. The Common Good Party proposes simplifying the tax code, closing loopholes that allow the wealthy and corporations to pay lower effective rates than middle-class families, and using the revenue to fund universal services that replace costs families currently pay out of pocket.
This page breaks down each approach honestly — what it gets right, what it misses, and what it would actually mean for your paycheck, your retirement, and the fiscal health of the country. No spin, no talking points, just the policy.
How the three approaches stack up on the tax issues that matter most to your household and the economy.
| Issue | Democrats | Republicans | Common Good |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top income rate | 39.6% (raise from 37%) | 37% (maintain or lower) | 39.6% on $500K+, 44% on $1M+ |
| Corporate rate | 28% (raise from 21%) | 21% (maintain) or 15% | 25% + 15% minimum on book income |
| Capital gains | Tax as income above $1M | Maintain 20% rate | Tax as income above $500K, deemed realization at $100M+ |
| Wealth tax | Some support (Warren plan) | Oppose — unconstitutional | Deemed realization approach (avoids constitutional issue) |
| Estate tax | Lower exemption to $3.5M | Repeal entirely | $5M exemption, graduated rates above |
| IRS enforcement | Fund IRS (IRA funding) | Cut IRS funding | Full funding, focus on high-income audits |
| Carried interest | Close loophole (promised) | Maintain current treatment | Tax as ordinary income — no exceptions |
| Child tax credit | $3,600 (expand 2021 level) | $2,000 (current level) | $4,000, fully refundable |
| Standard deduction | Maintain current ($14,600) | Maintain current ($14,600) | Increase to $20,000 / $40,000 |
| Revenue impact | Roughly neutral (with spending) | Reduces revenue $4-5T/decade | Increases revenue $200-400B/year |
Sources: Congressional Budget Office, Tax Policy Center, Joint Committee on Taxation, party platform documents. See the compact comparison view for a quick side-by-side summary.
The Democratic approach to taxation centers on increasing taxes on high earners and corporations to fund expanded social programs. Key proposals include raising the top marginal income tax rate from 37% to 39.6%, increasing the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, taxing capital gains as ordinary income for taxpayers earning over $1 million, expanding the Child Tax Credit to $3,600 per child (as was done temporarily in 2021), and closing the carried interest loophole. Democrats also funded an $80 billion IRS expansion through the Inflation Reduction Act to improve enforcement and close the estimated $600 billion annual "tax gap."
The 2021 expanded Child Tax Credit was one of the most effective anti-poverty measures in recent history — it lifted 3.7 million children out of poverty in a single year. Funding IRS enforcement generates an estimated $5-7 in additional revenue for every $1 spent, making it one of the most efficient investments the government can make. The principle that wealthy Americans should not pay lower effective tax rates than middle-class families is supported by overwhelming public opinion — 61% of Americans believe the wealthy pay too little in taxes, according to Gallup polling.
The Democratic approach raises rates but leaves many of the structural loopholes intact. Promising to close carried interest without actually doing it — as both parties have done for decades — does not count as policy. The corporate rate increase to 28% sounds significant but still leaves the effective rate well below what most profitable corporations paid before 2017. Capital gains reform at the $1 million threshold misses the vast majority of tax-advantaged investment income. And the overall approach remains piecemeal — a collection of credits, deductions, and rate changes rather than a coherent simplification of a tax code that costs Americans an estimated 6.5 billion hours per year in compliance time.
For more on how the tax gap works, see the full taxation explainer.
The Republican approach to taxation emphasizes lower rates, reduced regulation, and supply-side economics — the theory that tax cuts, particularly on investment and business income, stimulate economic growth that benefits everyone. The centerpiece was the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which cut the corporate rate from 35% to 21%, reduced individual rates across all brackets, doubled the standard deduction, and nearly doubled the estate tax exemption. Current proposals include making the TCJA provisions permanent (they are set to expire in 2025), further reducing the corporate rate to 15%, and cutting IRS funding.
Doubling the standard deduction simplified filing for millions of Americans who no longer needed to itemize. Lower corporate rates can make American businesses more competitive internationally — the pre-2017 statutory rate of 35% was among the highest in the OECD, though the effective rate was much lower. Tax simplification is a legitimate goal: the compliance burden of the current code falls disproportionately on small businesses and middle-class families who cannot afford sophisticated tax planning.
The 2017 tax cuts did not pay for themselves through growth, as promised. The Congressional Budget Office estimated they added $1.9 trillion to the national debt over ten years. The benefits were heavily skewed: the top 1% of earners received an average tax cut of $51,000, while the bottom 60% received an average of $800. Corporate tax revenue fell by 31% in the first year after passage. Many corporations used the savings for stock buybacks — over $1 trillion in 2018 alone — rather than worker wages or capital investment.
Cutting IRS enforcement funding is particularly counterproductive: the IRS estimates it loses $600 billion per year in uncollected taxes, primarily from wealthy individuals and corporations with complex returns. Reducing enforcement capacity means the wealthiest taxpayers are even less likely to be audited — audit rates for millionaires have already fallen from 8% in 2010 to under 1% today. The Republican approach cuts revenue without cutting spending proportionally, accelerating the growth of the national debt.
For a deeper analysis of how the 2017 tax cuts performed, see our taxation explainer.
The Common Good Party proposes a simplified, progressive tax system that closes loopholes, raises effective rates on the wealthiest Americans and largest corporations, and uses the revenue to fund universal services that replace costs families currently pay out of pocket. Key proposals: increase the standard deduction to $20,000 single / $40,000 married, expand the Child Tax Credit to $4,000 fully refundable, set the corporate rate at 25% with a 15% minimum on book income, tax capital gains as ordinary income above $500,000, implement deemed realization of gains above $100 million, close the carried interest loophole permanently, fully fund IRS enforcement with a focus on high-income audits, and set the estate tax exemption at $5 million with graduated rates above.
Unlike the Democratic approach, the CGP plan doesn't just raise rates — it restructures the code to eliminate the loopholes that make statutory rates meaningless. A 28% corporate rate with loopholes intact produces less revenue than a 25% rate with a 15% minimum and no exceptions. Unlike the Republican approach, it recognizes that tax cuts without spending cuts simply become debt — and that debt is a tax on future generations. The CGP plan is the only one that is simultaneously progressive, revenue-positive, and simplifying. The larger standard deduction and expanded CTC reduce the tax burden on working families while the loophole closures and higher rates on high earners generate the revenue needed to fund universal healthcare, housing programs, and deficit reduction.
The 2021 expanded Child Tax Credit demonstrated that direct cash transfers to families reduce child poverty dramatically — 3.7 million children were lifted out of poverty in one year. IRS enforcement funding generates $5-7 in revenue per $1 invested, according to the Treasury Department. Countries with higher top marginal rates and stronger enforcement — including Denmark (55.9%), Sweden (52.3%), and Germany (47.5%) — maintain robust economic growth while funding universal services that reduce household costs. The US had top marginal rates above 70% from 1936 to 1980, a period that produced the largest middle-class expansion in history.
The deemed realization approach has been endorsed by tax law scholars at NYU, Columbia, and the Tax Policy Center as a constitutionally sound alternative to a direct wealth tax. It prevents the "buy, borrow, die" strategy that allows billionaires to accumulate vast wealth without ever paying capital gains taxes on unrealized appreciation — estimated to shelter $5 trillion in untaxed gains.
The numbers matter more than the talking points. Here's what the Common Good tax plan would look like for real households — compared to what they pay today.
Want to see exactly how the plan affects your household? Enter your income, deductions, family size, and current insurance costs.
Open the Tax CalculatorCommon questions about how the three approaches compare.
Have a question not answered here? Read the full taxation explainer or visit our site-wide FAQ.
Dive deeper into tax policy with these pages.
Billionaires should not pay lower tax rates than teachers. Read the full plan, run the numbers, and see which approach actually fixes the code.
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