Boxplot Data and Displays: Apply It 1

  • Read information from a boxplot and make conclusions
  • Compare boxplots

Good Tax Policy?

Stack of US tax forms with a calculator and pencil.
Figure 1. Tax forms like these are central to understanding who benefits—and who doesn’t—when major policy changes are made.

President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) into law on December 22, 2017, bringing sweeping changes to the tax code.[1]

Read these two quotes about the U.S. 2017 Tax Reform bill:[2]

“We’re doing everything we can to reduce the tax burden on you and your family. By eliminating tax breaks and loopholes, we will ensure that the benefits are focused on the middle class, the working men and women, not the highest income earners. Our framework includes our explicit commitment that tax reform will protect low-income and middle-income households, not the wealthy and well connected.” – President Donald Trump in 2017, prior to the bill’s enactment.[3]

“You remember just a few years ago when Trump and my Republican colleagues voted for almost $[latex]2[/latex] trillion in tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this country and the largest corporations.” – Bernie Sanders (United States Senator) in 2021, after the bill was enacted.[4]

How people felt in principle about the overhauls of more than $1.5 trillion depended to some extent on their opinion of Trump’s presidency. Individually, the impact of the changes depended on factors like income level, filing status, and deductions. [5]

Supporters argued that the law would increase GDP growth, increase levels of business investment, increase wage and salary income for households, that the tax cuts would pay for themselves, and that the law would simplify tax codes. Opponents argued that the law would result in adverse impacts, including a higher budget deficit, higher trade deficit, greater income inequality, and lower healthcare coverage and higher healthcare costs, and a disproportionate impact on certain states and professions.[6]

What kind of data would help us to evaluate these claims?

  1. https://www.investopedia.com/taxes/trumps-tax-reform-plan-explained/ ↵
  2. Data and lesson context adapted from Skew the Script, www.skewthescript.org ↵
  3. Administration of Donald J. Trump. (2017, September 27). Remarks in Indianapolis, Indiana. Govinfo.gov. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/DCPD-201700693/html/DCPD-201700693.htm ↵
  4. Cooper, A. (Interviewer). (2021, January 29.). CNN. ↵
  5. https://www.investopedia.com/taxes/trumps-tax-reform-plan-explained/ ↵
  6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Cuts_and_Jobs_Act_of_2017#:~:text=Major%20elements%20of%20the%20changes,taxes%20and%20property%20taxes%2C%20further ↵