The budget legislation is just another in a long line of big bills that aren’t as terrible as opponents claim or as great as supporters say.
Opinions of the One Big Beautiful Bill tend toward the extreme. One of its main authors calls it “the greatest piece of Republican legislation in a generation,” while one of its most authoritative critics says it makes him ashamed to be an American. So allow me to offer what counts as a radical view: The bill is neither as terrible as its opponents say nor as impressive as its supporters claim.
The reason markets are not responding more to the 870-page bill is that they see it for what it is — just another in a very long line of very big bills that add to the debt but won’t break the economy, at least not soon.
Such bills always contain some good stuff and some bad stuff. Some of the better provisions of this bill make permanent the beneficial aspects of Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017. The increased standard deduction, for example, makes the tax code less distortionary. Allowing full expensing for corporate research and investment will increase growth.
Continue reading the entire piece here at Bloomberg Opinion (paywall)
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Allison Schrager is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal.
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