Tax Overhaul Process Retreated from Democracy

Anyone who followed the recent tax reform process in Congress can be forgiven for worrying about the health of American democracy. Meeting behind closed doors, House and Senate Republicans reached a secret deal on new legislation. Their final round of negotiations followed an earlier rushed legislative process that lacked meaningful public hearings and culminated in a middle-of-the-night vote in the Senate on legislation most Americans oppose. Overall, the tax reform process looked nothing like what most Americans were taught about how a bill becomes law. Of course, democratic life has never been tidy. That is probably why Winston Churchill observed that “democracy is the worst form of government — except for all those other forms.” The tax bill’s saga, though, does raise alarm bells about American democracy. In healthy democratic systems, governments live up to four core values about how decisions get made. Unfortunately, the recent tax…

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