Tax cuts, and how to tell whether we can afford them

I want to talk about taxes the way I would talk about a household budget, because the logic is not all that different.

Most families trying to spend less do two things. They look for what they are paying for and no longer using, and they make sure a change they make this month will still work in six months. The state should do the same.

On the first part, I would pair lower individual income tax rates with closing outdated loopholes and exemptions. Every one of those was written for a reason, and plenty of those reasons stopped applying decades ago. Nobody goes looking for them, because each one has somebody who likes it.

On the second part, which matters more and gets discussed less, I support revenue triggers. That is a plain idea with a technical name. A tax cut takes effect only when revenue actually reaches an agreed level, and it pauses when revenue does not. We decide in advance what we can afford, and the cut waits until we can afford it.

The alternative is what we usually do, which is to cut first and find out the consequences two years later, in a classroom or on a road.