Production that increases the standard of living of American families should be favored over those that decrease it. Second, tax reform should create more, better paying jobs . Worker's wages have been falling. Median family income fell in every year from 1989 to 1993. Under the present Tax Code that treats all production uniformly, worker wages continue to fall despite the fact that GDP and corporate profits continue to rise.
Big government is a popular scapegoat for the erosion of income levels.
Representative Armey asserts that people are working harder and getting less because government is taking a bigger bite out of their paycheck. But, in reality, it is pre-tax pay that has decreased. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the effective federal tax rate on the middle class is stable or declining. We believe that the way to create more and better jobs requires looking beyond how much we tax to what we tax. Tax reform that stops subsidizing pollution and encourages work by decreasing the tax rate on labor and shifting the tax onto pollution would improve family wages.