GOP betting that slashing taxes will improve US economy

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But Republicans have characterized the brew of tax cuts as an economic elixir. The job market appears healthy. But the pace of economic growth, though it’s perked up the past two quarters, has been underwhelming for years. From 2010 to 2016, U.S. growth averaged 2.1 percent a year, a pittance compared with the 3.2 percent average annual growth from 1948 through 2016.

Like its counterparts in Europe and Japan, the U.S. economy has been slowed by a slump in worker productivity, a vital ingredient for a robust economy. U.S. productivity — worker output per hour — trudged ahead at an average annual rate of just 0.6 percent a year from 2011 to 2016, down sharply from a post-World War II average of 2.1 percent.

The more productive that workers are, the more their employers can afford to pay them. And the more that workers are paid, the more they can propel consumer spending, the economy’s primary fuel.

Republicans say their corporate tax cuts offer a solution to the productivity slump. Their plan will cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. Multinational corporations would receive a one-time tax break on profits they’ve kept overseas, thereby encouraging them to return the money to the United States. Companies could write off the full cost of new equipment.