Ford Professor Betsey Stevenson casts doubt on middle-class gains from federal tax cuts

January 11, 2019

In the January 10, 2019 PBS NewsHour story “Evaluating Trump’s economic policies, 2 years in,” Paul Solman asked Ford School Professor, and former member of the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) for the Obama Administration, Betsey Stevenson about the Trump tax cut’s impact on American families.

Stevenson offers skepticism that the tax cut passed in 2017 will give Americans the payday promised by proponents. “We can debate how much smaller, I think substantially smaller. And so do I think it's ever going to hit $4,000? No,” she told Solman. Her comments were in response to an interview in the same news story from Kevin Hassett, current chairman of the CEA.

To read the complete transcript of Solman’s interview or watch the story click here.

A former member of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, Betsey Stevenson is an associate professor of public policy at the Ford School. Professor Stevenson is also a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research and a fellow of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in Munich. Stevenson served as the chief economist for the Department of Labor from 2010 to 2011 and currently serves on the board of directors of the American Law and Economics Association.