The Big Tax Debate of 2025

When President Trump and his fellow Republicans in Congress pushed through their tax law in 2017  – with zero Democratic support – they made parts of it temporary to disguise its true cost. Those temporary provisions expire at the end of this year. Permanently extending them all would add almost $5 trillion to the national debt and mostly benefit the ultra-wealthy and big business. 

The Trump-GOP tax law has been an expensive failure. It has already cost us nearly $2 trillion in lost revenue; primarily aided the ultra-wealthy; and provided none of the economic payoffs that were promised to average Americans – such as higher wages and faster economic growth.

What’s at Stake:

Affordable housing and fair taxes are deeply linked issues—both fundamental to creating a just society where people can meet their basic needs and have a decent place to live. A permanent extension of the expiring parts of the 2017 GOP-Trump tax law would grant massive tax cuts to big corporations and the ultra-wealthy, wasting trillions of dollars that could help solve our country’s affordable housing crisis. The deficit-financed tax cuts would also increase interest rates, making housing less affordable. To the extent the tax cuts are not added to the deficit, housing programs are among the important public services being targeted for significant cuts to fund tax giveaways for billionaires and their wealthy donors.

For example:

• According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the Trump-GOP tax scam would make borrowing more expensive, making it even harder to become a homeowner because “large, deficit-financed tax cuts would put upward pressure on inflation and interest rates, slowing growth and causing pain to households.”
• Based on past Republican tax-and-spending plans, budget cuts used to pay for the GOP-Trump tax scam will raise housing costs for working families. Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have in the recent past proposed cutting housing vouchers by 10%, when only one in four eligible families currently receive this vital assistance. 
• In a leaked memo from the House Budget Committee on possible budget cuts, the GOP listed eliminating “the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction, which would fully repeal the deduction for mortgage interest on primary residences.”
  • The memo also suggests “rescinding the remaining unobligated HAMP-to-HHF funds transferred in omnibus” as an option. This policy would rescind funds from the Hardest Hit Fund, which provides funding for state HFAs to develop locally-tailored foreclosure prevention solutions in areas that have been hard hit by home price declines and high unemployment. 
  • It also suggests “reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” which likely means privatization and eliminating the National Flood Insurance Program subsidies. 

• An important affordable housing program, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), was made less effective by the 2017 Trump law and there are no plans to reverse that damage as part of the proposed extension. An early analysis estimated the law would result in 235,000 fewer affordable housing units over 10 years.  Trump’s Tax Scam  reduced the financial incentive for corporations—the largest LIHTC investors—to make equity investments in the tax credits by slashing the corporate tax rate to 21 percent,  and adopting a stingier measure of inflation.
  
• One of the most regressive provisions in the 2017 Trump-GOP tax law is the so-called “opportunity zone” tax break (OZ). While proponents claimed it would encourage investment in low-income neighborhoods, it has instead been ruthlessly exploited by wealthy real-estate investors. In fact, this program has failed to deliver the promised economic opportunity to underserved communities, instead turning many of these neighborhoods into what can more accurately be described as Exploitation Zones. The program’s costs have  spiraled out of control since its inception. Originally it was projected to cost $12.4 billion before expiring in 2026. However, it is now projected to lose $70 billion of revenue over the next decade if made permanent.