This is the Kator Daily Podcast for Monday, June 17th, 2004. I'm Caleb Brown.

Americans could face higher taxes in 2026, and you should expect to hear a lot about

it in the political season headed into November's elections but the expiration of

tax cuts passed in 2017 is really an opportunity to rethink large pieces of the tax code.

Doing so would give Congress an opportunity to lower overall tax rates to their lowest level in a century.

Cato's Adam Michelle explains in his new paper.

Whenever tax cuts are passed or some sort of reform is offered to the tax code. So often it is temporary. It is passed for a few years and the expiration

of those changes typically come at a politically advantageous time for one party or another.

The tax cuts that were passed in 2017 are set to expire at the end of 2025 is that correct?

Yes, that's correct.

Okay, so I can already in my mind's eye picture the political rhetoric that will

surround the expiration of these tax cuts that we will hear this year and

next year and next year.

And I'm sure a lot of lawmakers are going to build that

into their campaigns.

We can't let these expire.

But that's a very blunt way of assessing what good tax policy looks

like.

The idea is cuts are good, hikes are bad, and there is nothing else to essentially discuss about this.

And yet here we are, Adam, discussing the better policy

than these two sort of blunt views of what the tax code ought to look like. So what is the

opportunity here with the potential expiration of these tax cuts at the end of next year.

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