In politics, good news is rarely treated as news at all. For the past seven years, the Trump tax cuts have been maligned, distorted, and largely ignored, especially when the data didn’t fit the preferred narrative. Yet here we are in 2025, with President Donald Trump making a triumphant return to the campaign trail, promising a “big, beautiful” expansion of his 2017 tax reform. And frankly, he has every reason to double down.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 wasn’t just a win for corporations and the wealthy; it was a massive boost for working Americans, middle-class families, and small businesses. But you wouldn’t know that from reading most mainstream coverage. Instead, they parrot the same tired talking points: “It ballooned the deficit,” “It was a handout to billionaires,” “It didn’t help regular people.” The truth, as usual, is more complicated and far more favorable to the American taxpayer than the critics care to admit.
The Middle-Class Myth
One of the most pervasive lies about the TCJA is that it somehow hurt the middle class. In reality, it did the opposite. According to data from the Congressional Budget Office and IRS filings from the years immediately following its passage, middle-income earners saw their effective tax rates drop. The standard deduction was nearly doubled. The child tax credit was expanded. Millions of Americans saw more money in their paychecks because of lower withholding.
In 2018, the first full year after the tax cuts took effect, 80% of Americans received a tax cut. For a family of four earning $75,000, the savings averaged around $2,000. That’s not Wall Street-level money, but it’s a car repair, a month of rent, or two weeks of groceries. For working families, that matters.
The reason this truth got buried? Because most of those savings were spread out over paychecks, not delivered as lump-sum refunds. And so, while the political class obsessed over top marginal rates, regular Americans quietly kept more of their hard earned money. The fact that this went underreported doesn’t make it untrue.
Small Businesses Were Big Winners
Another critical but underappreciated piece of the 2017 tax law was its treatment of small businesses. For the first time, pass-through entities like LLCs, sole proprietorships, and S corps were given a 20% deduction on qualified business income. These are the mom-and-pop shops, local service providers, and family-run operations that make up the backbone of Main Street America.
For years, they had been taxed at personal income rates, which could be as high as 39.6%. The TCJA leveled the playing field. It gave them the breathing room to hire, expand, or invest in equipment and inventory. That’s not a gift to billionaires. That’s commonsense economic stimulus for the working class.
Corporate Cuts That Worked
Yes, the corporate tax rate was slashed from 35% to 21%. And yes, that number sounds big. But let’s not forget: America had the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world before the TCJA. That drove companies overseas, encouraged inversions, and kept trillions in earnings parked abroad. The tax reform fixed that.
In the years immediately following the tax cuts, U.S. corporations repatriated over a trillion dollars. Capital investment rose. Unemployment fell to historic lows. Wages began rising after a stagnant decade. And for all the talk about buybacks and CEO bonuses, the biggest beneficiaries were American workers. A 2019 Heritage Foundation study found that over 600 companies gave bonuses, raises, or improved benefits directly because of the tax cuts.
Critics don’t have to like it, but they can’t deny the results.
The Deficit Deception
Here’s where the media really skew the story. They constantly cite the increase in the federal deficit post-2017 as proof that the tax cuts “failed.” But that ignores two key facts: First, government spending, not tax cuts, has been the primary driver of deficit growth. Second, tax revenue as a share of GDP was near its historical average even after the TCJA.
In fact, the economy grew faster than the CBO projected in the years following the tax reform. More people were working. More income was being generated. That led to more tax revenue even at lower rates. What wrecked the deficit? COVID-era spending, multi-trillion-dollar bailouts, and runaway entitlement growth, not letting working families keep more of their income.
A Vision for 2025 and Beyond
Trump’s promise to expand and extend the tax cuts in a second term is not only politically smart; it’s economically sound. He floated eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits for seniors, further cutting middle-class rates, and locking in the TCJA before key provisions expire in 2025.
That expiration is no accident. Democrats wrote the law to sunset middle-class cuts while keeping corporate rates permanent, betting they’d later campaign against a “tax hike for the rich.” Trump is calling that bluff. He’s saying, Let’s make the cuts permanent. Let’s go farther. Let’s restore America’s competitive edge and put more money in the hands of the people who actually work for it.
It’s a compelling vision, and one that deserves more than a passing sneer from coastal pundits.
Why This Matters
We are at a moment of economic anxiety. Inflation, housing costs, and interest rates are hammering working Americans. The Biden administration’s response has been to regulate, redistribute, and rebrand, calling inflation “transitory,” blaming supply chains, and printing more money. Trump’s plan is simpler: Let Americans keep more of what they earn, get the government out of the way, and trust the economy to do what it does best: grow.
The 2017 tax reform was a success story that never got its due. It’s time that changed. Don’t be surprised if voters embrace a second round in 2026: lower taxes, higher growth, and a little more faith in the people who make this country work.
Joshua Chronicles is a writer and commentator focused on free markets, tax policy, and American prosperity. He regularly contributes opinion pieces from a center-right perspective on economic and political issues.
Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.