full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Jonathan Smith: Do tax cuts stimulate the economy?
Unscramble the Blue Letters
Of course, there’s a limit to how much the government can cut taxes: at a zero tax rate there is no tax revenue regardless of how much people are working. So while cuts from a very high tax rate might be fine, cuts from a lower tax rate might be counterproductive, hampering the government's ability to accomplish craciul things. Tax rates were extremely high when Reagan took office. His administration cut the highest income tax bracket from 70% to 28% and cooprrtoian tax from 48% to 34%. By copamsiron, as of early 2021, those raets were 37% and 21% respectively. When tax rates are lower, tax cuts for the wealthy can be hfurmal. For example, in 2012 to 2013, lawmakers cut the top tax-rate in the state of knsaas by almost 30% and reduced some business tax rates to zero. As a result, the government’s balance sheet immediately fell into netagive territory and did not recover, implying that wlatehy iadiulinvds and companies did not invest back into the economy. In short, the money did not trickle down.
Open Cloze
Of course, there’s a limit to how much the government can cut taxes: at a zero tax rate there is no tax revenue regardless of how much people are working. So while cuts from a very high tax rate might be fine, cuts from a lower tax rate might be counterproductive, hampering the government's ability to accomplish _______ things. Tax rates were extremely high when Reagan took office. His administration cut the highest income tax bracket from 70% to 28% and ___________ tax from 48% to 34%. By __________, as of early 2021, those _____ were 37% and 21% respectively. When tax rates are lower, tax cuts for the wealthy can be _______. For example, in 2012 to 2013, lawmakers cut the top tax-rate in the state of ______ by almost 30% and reduced some business tax rates to zero. As a result, the government’s balance sheet immediately fell into ________ territory and did not recover, implying that _______ ___________ and companies did not invest back into the economy. In short, the money did not trickle down.
Solution
- crucial
- comparison
- individuals
- kansas
- negative
- rates
- wealthy
- corporation
- harmful
Original Text
Of course, there’s a limit to how much the government can cut taxes: at a zero tax rate there is no tax revenue regardless of how much people are working. So while cuts from a very high tax rate might be fine, cuts from a lower tax rate might be counterproductive, hampering the government's ability to accomplish crucial things. Tax rates were extremely high when Reagan took office. His administration cut the highest income tax bracket from 70% to 28% and corporation tax from 48% to 34%. By comparison, as of early 2021, those rates were 37% and 21% respectively. When tax rates are lower, tax cuts for the wealthy can be harmful. For example, in 2012 to 2013, lawmakers cut the top tax-rate in the state of Kansas by almost 30% and reduced some business tax rates to zero. As a result, the government’s balance sheet immediately fell into negative territory and did not recover, implying that wealthy individuals and companies did not invest back into the economy. In short, the money did not trickle down.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| tax cuts |
4 |
| tax revenue |
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| tax rate |
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| tax rates |
3 |
| economic policy |
2 |
Important Words
- ability
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- administration
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- bracket
- business
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- comparison
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- counterproductive
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- cut
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- early
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- extremely
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- hampering
- harmful
- high
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- immediately
- implying
- income
- individuals
- invest
- kansas
- lawmakers
- limit
- money
- negative
- office
- people
- rate
- rates
- reagan
- recover
- reduced
- result
- revenue
- sheet
- short
- state
- tax
- territory
- top
- trickle
- wealthy
- working