Rebuttal to Department of the Treasury
by: William L. Walton, Stephen Moore, David R. Burton
Rebuttal to Project 2025: Department of the Treasury by William L. Walton, Stephen Moore, and David R. Burton
The Project 2025 vision for the Department of the Treasury, laid out by William L. Walton, Stephen Moore, and David R. Burton, promotes a familiar agenda centered on tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation of financial markets, and a heavy reliance on supply-side, or "trickle-down," economics. While these proposals are framed as a strategy to boost economic growth, the approach fails to address the needs of working- and middle-class Americans and risks exacerbating income inequality, increasing the national debt, and undermining long-term economic stability.
The Treasury Department plays a pivotal role in managing the nation’s fiscal health and ensuring that policies promote fairness and financial stability. However, Project 2025 prioritizes corporate interests and the wealthiest Americans, leaving behind the vast majority of citizens who rely on a fair and balanced economy to thrive.
Tax Cuts for the Wealthy: Exacerbating Income Inequality
One of the core components of the Project 2025 vision for the Treasury is a dramatic reduction in taxes, particularly for corporations and high-income individuals. Walton, Moore, and Burton argue that cutting taxes for the wealthy will stimulate economic growth, increase investment, and lead to job creation. However, decades of evidence show that such policies disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans, while doing little to boost the economy for the middle and lower classes.
Trickle-down economics—the theory that tax cuts for the wealthy will eventually benefit everyone—has consistently failed to deliver on its promises. Instead of boosting wages and creating widespread economic prosperity, tax cuts for the wealthy tend to exacerbate income inequality by concentrating wealth at the top. Wealthy individuals and corporations typically reinvest their tax savings into stock buybacks, dividends, or offshore accounts, rather than expanding businesses or raising wages for workers. As a result, the economic gains from tax cuts rarely trickle down to the broader population.
The Project 2025 plan also calls for reducing capital gains taxes and corporate taxes, which overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest individuals and businesses. These cuts would disproportionately enrich the top 1% of earners, leaving the middle class to shoulder a larger share of the tax burden. Lowering corporate taxes may lead to short-term boosts in profits for large companies, but the benefits rarely extend to workers, who continue to experience stagnant wages and rising living costs.
Furthermore, when the government reduces taxes on the wealthy, it must either cut spending on essential public services—such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure—or increase the national debt. Historically, tax cuts have led to budget deficits that force the federal government to make cuts to programs that disproportionately benefit working-class Americans, deepening inequality and reducing access to vital services. The long-term consequences of this strategy could include a weakened social safety net and greater economic instability for millions of Americans.
Deregulation: Risking Financial Instability
Another pillar of Walton, Moore, and Burton’s vision for the Department of the Treasury is the wholesale deregulation of financial markets. The argument is that reducing government oversight will free businesses to innovate, invest, and grow, thereby boosting the overall economy. However, this approach ignores the critical role that financial regulations play in protecting consumers, ensuring market stability, and preventing economic crises.
The 2008 financial crisis provides a stark reminder of the dangers of unchecked deregulation. In the years leading up to the crisis, Wall Street operated with little oversight, engaging in risky practices like subprime mortgage lending and excessive leverage. The collapse of these practices triggered the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, causing widespread unemployment, home foreclosures, and financial instability. In response, the federal government enacted regulations, such as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, to rein in risky behavior and protect consumers.
By calling for a rollback of these and other regulations, Project 2025 would put the economy at risk of another financial meltdown. Deregulation would empower large financial institutions to take on excessive risk without sufficient oversight, increasing the likelihood of speculative bubbles and economic instability. Moreover, removing consumer protections would leave ordinary Americans vulnerable to predatory lending practices, fraud, and exploitation by financial institutions.
Walton, Moore, and Burton advocate for reducing the role of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency created to protect consumers from abusive financial practices. The CFPB has successfully implemented rules to curb predatory lending, hold financial institutions accountable for misconduct, and safeguard Americans from unfair treatment by banks, credit card companies, and other lenders. Weakening or dismantling this agency would harm consumers, particularly low-income individuals and communities of color, who are often the most vulnerable to financial exploitation.
Ignoring Economic Inequality
While the authors of Project 2025 claim their policies will benefit all Americans, their focus on tax cuts for the wealthy and financial deregulation ignores the deep and growing economic inequality in the United States. Income inequality has been steadily rising for decades, with the wealthiest Americans capturing an increasingly large share of the nation’s wealth, while wages for middle- and low-income workers have stagnated. The policies proposed by Walton, Moore, and Burton would accelerate this trend, concentrating even more wealth at the top while leaving the majority of Americans behind.
Reducing taxes on the rich and deregulating financial markets will do little to address the structural issues driving inequality. The rising cost of healthcare, education, housing, and other necessities continues to outpace wage growth for the majority of workers, making it harder for families to make ends meet. Instead of promoting policies that reduce inequality and create economic opportunities for all, the Project 2025 vision doubles down on a failed strategy that benefits the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.
National Debt and Fiscal Irresponsibility
The Project 2025 plan also fails to address the long-term consequences of its proposed tax cuts on the national debt. Cutting taxes without corresponding reductions in government spending leads to increased budget deficits and higher national debt. Under the Trump administration, which followed a similar tax-cutting agenda, the national debt ballooned, increasing by trillions of dollars. Tax cuts for the wealthy, combined with continued government spending, create an unsustainable fiscal trajectory that could have serious consequences for future generations.
As the national debt grows, the federal government will face increasing pressure to reduce spending on critical programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which millions of Americans rely on for financial security and healthcare. The long-term result of this fiscal irresponsibility could be deep cuts to the social safety net, further exacerbating economic inequality and reducing the quality of life for many Americans.
A Flawed Economic Vision
Ultimately, the vision for the Department of the Treasury in Project 2025 reflects a deeply flawed economic philosophy that prioritizes the interests of the wealthy and large corporations over those of ordinary Americans. The focus on tax cuts, deregulation, and reducing government oversight ignores the lessons of the past and fails to address the pressing economic challenges facing the nation today.
The Treasury Department should be focused on creating a fair and balanced economy that promotes shared prosperity, protects consumers, and ensures financial stability. Instead, Walton, Moore, and Burton’s proposals would likely lead to greater inequality, increased financial instability, and a weakened safety net for millions of Americans. Rather than doubling down on failed policies, the Department of the Treasury should pursue policies that promote equitable growth, protect consumers, and ensure long-term economic stability.
Conclusion: A Vision That Benefits the Few at the Expense of the Many
The Project 2025 vision for the Department of the Treasury, as presented by William L. Walton, Stephen Moore, and David R. Burton, is a plan that overwhelmingly benefits the wealthy and corporate interests, while leaving working- and middle-class Americans behind. By advocating for massive tax cuts, financial deregulation, and a reduced role for government oversight, this vision risks increasing income inequality, worsening financial instability, and deepening the national debt.
Rather than pursuing policies that cater to the wealthiest Americans, the Treasury Department should focus on fostering an economy that works for everyone. This means promoting policies that ensure fair wages, protect consumers, and encourage long-term investments in healthcare, education, and infrastructure. The Project 2025 plan, with its emphasis on trickle-down economics and deregulation, represents a step backward for the U.S. economy and should be rejected in favor of a more inclusive, sustainable approach to economic growth.