The political news cycle is fast, and keeping up can be overwhelming. Trying to find differing perspectives worth your time is even harder. That's why we have scoured the internet for political writing from the right and left that you might not have seen.
Has this series exposed you to new ideas? Tell us how. Email us at ourpicks@nytimes.com.
For an archive of all the Partisan Writing Roundups, check out Our Picks.
From the Right
Tyler Cowen in Bloomberg:
"In essence, a new kind of supply-side economics has been invented."
Mr. Cowen, an economist with pro-free market, libertarian views, explains that the president's "economic revolution" is centered on making the United States a hub of investment, "not encouraging exports." It's this quality, he writes, that unites the "Trumpian nationalists" and the more establishment Republicans in Congress who want to pass a sweeping tax overhaul. Read more »
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Kevin D. Williamson in National Review:
"The Affordable Care Act began coming undone the second it was signed; this tax plan, created in much the same way, may very well suffer the same fate."
Mr. Williamson worries that many of the changes to the tax code enacted by this weekend's work by the Republican Party will last only as long as they are in power. Congress, he writes, has proved itself to be incapable "of conducting its business in a fashion befitting the legislature of the most powerful nation in the history of human affairs, and of forging bipartisan compromises." And bipartisanship, he reminds his readers, is the only way to pass legislation that can outlast a fickle electorate. Read more »
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From the Left
Jonathan Chait in New York Magazine:
"The passage of the Trump tax cuts will help lay the groundwork for their undoing by increasing the chances Democrats regain control of Congress."
Mr. Chait calls for the repeal and replacement of a signature piece of the Trump administration's legislative agenda: tax cuts for the rich. He, like Mr. Williamson, understands how precarious the changes made to the tax code are. He suggests that Democrats running in 2020 campaign focus on exposing Mr. Trump's false populism and advocating for increased social spending. "Reporters are inevitably going to ask them how they plan to pay for it," he writes. "Republicans have given them an easy answer: Repeal the Trump tax cuts for the rich." Read more »
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"One thing is clear: Labor is the loser, and capital is the winner."
Mr. Weissmann is skeptical that corporations, given a significant tax cut, will let the extra cash flow to employees. In the past, he writes, we have seen companies "lavish" corporate profits onto shareholders. Moreover, he argues that for people worried about income inequality, corporate tax cuts aren't even the most alarming part of the Republican plan: "The cuts targeted at pass-through businesses are." Read more »
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Finally, From the Center
David C. Barker in The Conversation:
"Congressional Republicans' collective sigh of relief after passing tax legislation may seem confusing. Won't voters hold them accountable in 2018 for passing such an historically unpopular bill? The answer is 'no,' for several reasons."
Mr. Barker, a professor of government at American University, explains why it may not matter much to Republicans that their tax plan is unpopular. According to his research, the Republican Party just doesn't care as much about public opinion as the Democrats do. Read more »
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Editorial board in USA Today:
"If Republicans had any sense, they'd go back to their roots. This would include support for international trade and balanced budgets, and a lower tolerance for a president who brags about grabbing women's genitalia."
The editorial board at USA Today is most dismayed by the Republican repeal of the individual mandate in their tax plan. The $338 billion saved by repealing the mandate, they write, is not "found money." It's money "that health care providers won't get when some of the 13 million uninsured start showing up in emergency rooms." Read more »
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From New York Times Readers
"As an independent, I would have liked to see Republicans invite the Democrats into the process of creating a Tax Reform Bill that would have been more egalitarian."
— M Kathryn Black, Provincetown, Mass.
"Nothing is permanent when it comes to legislation — what can be done during one session of Congress can just as quickly be undone by the next."
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