'Reverse Robin Hood scam' or windfall for middle class? Lawmakers debate Trump tax plan extensions

cnbc.com:

As Congress debates how to handle trillions of dollars in expiring tax breaks, lawmakers on both sides have been lobbing claims about which consumers will see the biggest benefits from extending them. Economists and tax experts say the answer isn't so straightforward.

In short: Who benefits depends on your frame of reference.

House Republicans passed a budget plan Tuesday that lays the groundwork to extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a package of tax cuts enacted in 2017 during President Trump's first term.

Many of the cuts for individual taxpayers will expire after 2025 unless Congress acts — and the GOP can do this with a simple majority vote in Congress by using a special legislative maneuver called budget reconciliation.

Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., ranking member of the House Ways and Means tax committee, said Wednesday that Republicans' policy plan — central to which is an extension of the Trump tax cuts, estimated to cost more than $4 trillion — amounts to a «reverse Robin Hood scam» that gives to the rich and takes from the poor.

Meanwhile, Republicans say low- and middle-income households stand to win under the plan.

«Extending the Trump tax cuts delivers the biggest relief to working-class Americans and small businesses in a generation,» Rep. Jason Smith, R-Missouri, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said Tuesday.

Experts say both sides' arguments have merit.

«The interesting thing is both can be true, depending on how you interpret what they're saying,» said James Hines, a law and economics professor at the University of Michigan and research director in its Office of Tax Policy Research.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act lowered taxes for most U.S. households, experts said.

The legislation was broad, benefiting