Trickle-Down Economics: Why OBBB Tax Cuts Will Fail

There’s a reason critics have long argued that "trickle-down economics" is actually a "trickle-up" theory. The core idea—that massive tax cuts and deregulation for big business will inevitably benefit the worker—was proven a failure under Reganomics, and it’s set to fail again with the so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill" (OBBB).

The historical data is damning: The combined tax acts of 1981 and 1986 slashed the maximum corporate tax rate from 70% to 34%. Did the savings trickle down? No. While the top one-percenters' wages skyrocketed by 138% between 1979 and 2015, the rest of us saw a paltry 15% increase, all while productivity grew by nearly 60%.

The OBBB doubles down on this flawed model, not only by introducing new corporate tax cuts but also by pushing aggressive deregulation. This removal of oversight—gutting agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the EPA—will allow Corporate America to realize trillions of dollars in savings over the next decade.

This is not a policy of economic stimulus; it is a policy of corporate enrichment. It pads corporate pockets at the direct expense of the middle and lower classes, consumer safety, and the environment, ensuring the rich get richer while the rest of us continue a rapid descent. The real question is not how much business will save, but at what cost to the rest of America.