Five years ago this week, Ways and Means Committee Republican Leader Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) introduced the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), historic, pro-worker and pro-growth tax reform. 

Just one year after Republicans’ TCJA went into effect, the growth in wealth of lower–income families outpaced that of the upper-class – for the first time since 2007. While TCJA made America competitive again, Democrats’ recent tax hikes along with the future expiration of key TCJA provisions puts our economic edge at risk, warns the Tax Foundation.

Republicans’ Commitment to America can deliver an economy that’s strong, where everyone has the opportunity to enjoy the American dream. Making TCJA permanent means more Americans can keep more of their hard-earned money.

Key Takeaways:

TCJA lowered the average federal tax rate for all filers, boosted workers’ paychecks, and created more opportunity.

• TCJA reduced the average federal tax rate from 20.8 percent to 19.3 percent for all filers.
• The bottom 20 percent of earners saw their average federal tax rate fall to its lowest in 40 years.
• Republican tax reform led to the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years.
• Unemployment reached all-time lows for African-American workers, Hispanic workers, and workers without a high-school degree.
• American workers also enjoyed the fastest wage growth in a decade.
• Lower-wage workers won big, with 50 percent higher wage growth than high-income workers.
• Under-employment dropped nearly 30 percent to the lowest rate on record.
• Tax reform achieved the lowest poverty rate in a half century as well as shrunk income inequality for the first time in anyone’s memory.

READ: GOP Tax Reform Helped Low-Income Families, But Their Gains Are Declining After Biden Stimulus

Democrats’ crippling tax hikes hammer working families.

• Analysis from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) shows that the average working family is more likely to be worse-off than better-off under Democrats’ tax plan.
• For median-income families earning $50,000-$75,000, households are 33 percent more likely to have a tax hike than a tax cut.
• It gets worse for every dollar earned – families earning $75,000-$100,000 are four times more likely to have a tax hike than a tax cut, and families earning $100,000-$200,000 are more than ten times more likely to have a tax hike than a tax cut.
• The bill does nothing—or makes things worse—for regular working families. More than 92 percent of households with incomes under $200,000 get no benefit—or a tax hike—under Democrats’ bill.
• What’s more, the JCT analysis does not include Democrats’ superfund or methane taxes on American energy, which disproportionately harm middle- and lower-income households through higher prices at the pump and bigger utility bills.

READ: Nonpartisan Tax Scorekeeper: Average Working Family Is More Likely to Be Worse Off than Better Off Under Democrats’ Tax Plan

Republicans’ Commitment to America means a stronger economy.

• One of the central tenets of the Commitment to America is “an economy that’s strong” – one where families benefit from increased take-home pay, good-paying jobs, and stability through pro-growth tax and deregulatory policies. 
• Republicans’ Tax Cuts and Jobs Act helped all Americans by reducing the federal tax rates for households across every income level, while increasing the share of taxes paid by the top one percent. 
• Ways and Means Republicans will make permanent the very tax reform that succeeded in helping lower-income families.