Will America reward or punish work this fall?

America’s natural instinct is to work.  America is much better off when all Americans have better access to more work.

Likely Presidential voters concerned about our jobs can ask one key question about incentives:  how are you (Clinton or Trump) going to reward more work?  If you are not rewarding more work, are your policies likely to punish work?

Our nation’s priorities, and our problems with Washington, DC, can be clearly-seen by what we tolerate within our federal tax code.  To quote former Congressman Dave Camp, our federal tax code is ten times the size of the Bible and full of none of its Good News.

We know that raising the price of anything will result in less of it.  Higher cigarette taxes equals less smoking.  Higher income tax rates raises the federal price on work.  To expect the same or more work when we raise the price to participate would be pure folly.

Trump’s economic plan tries to reward more work by lowering tax rates with fewer brackets, improving deductions, and passing through savings to small business.  Clinton’s economic plan tries to punish work by raising tax rates, removing deductions, and penalizing overseas investments.

In the weeks ahead, those watching the forums and debates between both candidates can ask several key questions:

• How will you help small businesses hire more workers and make more investment?
• How will you track and measure the success of your economic plans once implemented?
• What do you believe is the ideal amount of work that our government deserves from your labor?

This week’s Fox and Friends hit discusses more about the contrasts with these plans.  Just like the idea of Labor Day weekend came from local and state governments like New York, America can learn a lot from what tax policies have succeeded or failed from the actual score that we present with How Money Walks tax return data.