Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

That’s the question Republicans in Congress will be debating as they struggle to put Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill (BBB)” in final form to pass and send to his desk. The essence of the bill should be well known at this point. It extends Trump’s 2017 tax cuts past their scheduled expiration date at the end of the year.

This matters little to most of the country, who did not see much benefit from the 2017 tax cut. However, it is big bucks to the rich and very rich who got a large tax cut from the 2017 bill. The bill also includes some extra gravy for the rich and very rich.

For example, it has a provision that allows owners of businesses to have much or all of their income taxed at the lower capital gains rate of 20 percent, instead of the 37 percent rate that they would otherwise pay. Trump is also proposing to cut I.R.S. staffing in half. He has also eliminated the tax enforcement division at the Justice Department. This means Trump and Republicans are effectively putting up a huge neon sign saying “Taxes are Voluntary” for rich people across the country.

Just to be clear, average Joe and Jane types out there should not be confused and think this means they won’t have to pay their taxes. Most of us have our taxes deducted from our paychecks. That will still happen. Maybe some of these people get some small change in interest or dividend income they can hide, but for the vast majority of ordinary people, shutting down enforcement won’t reduce our tax bill even if we wanted to cheat. For the rich and very rich, it is a very big deal.

There are also the “populist” tax cuts in the bills. The most famous is making tips tax free.........

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