Issues

Whether the FTC and DOJ should pursue more aggressive merger reviews and revise the consumer-welfare standard that has guided antitrust enforcement for decades.

Whether and how to enforce antitrust laws against major tech, healthcare, and consumer-goods firms — the renewed "neo-Brandeisian" approach vs. the consumer-welfare standard.

How investment gains are taxed — long-term rates of 0/15/20%, "stepped-up basis" at death, and proposals to tax unrealized gains for the ultra-wealthy.

A federal price on greenhouse-gas emissions — typically a tax per ton of CO2 — proposed as the most efficient way to reduce emissions.

Whether the share of investment profits paid to private-equity, hedge-fund, and venture-capital managers should be taxed as ordinary income rather than at lower capital-gains rates.

The headline U.S. federal corporate income-tax rate, currently 21% after the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act dropped it from 35%, plus debates over the global minimum tax.

How the U.S. should regulate digital assets — securities-law treatment, consumer protection, anti-money-laundering, stablecoin oversight, and CBDC questions.

How the IRS and Congress should treat cryptocurrencies for capital-gains reporting, exchange-information reporting, staking rewards, and routine small transactions.

Whether to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit — particularly for workers without qualifying children — and to raise income thresholds and phaseout points.

The federal tax on transfers of wealth at death, with an exemption above which estates pay 40% — currently exempting estates under ~$13.6M for individuals.

Federal use of subsidies, grants, and tax credits to target strategic industries like semiconductors, batteries, and clean energy — a return of large-scale industrial policy.

The federal floor for hourly wages — $7.25 since 2009, the longest stretch without an increase since the law was enacted — and proposals to raise it to $15-17.

The U.S. central bank's structure, dual mandate (price stability + maximum employment), and ongoing debates over its political independence and scope.

Whether the United States should adopt a federal value-added tax — a broad consumption tax levied at each stage of production — used by nearly every other developed country.

A small tax levied on stock, bond, and derivatives trades — proposed as both a revenue source and a brake on short-term speculation and high-frequency trading.

The total federal debt — over $34 trillion — and debates over whether deficits matter, what level is sustainable, and how to address it.

A federal tax incentive that allows investors to defer or reduce capital-gains tax on investments in designated low-income census tracts, created by the 2017 tax law.

Whether to raise or eliminate the wage cap above which earnings are exempt from Social Security payroll taxes, a frequent proposal for shoring up the program.

Whether inherited assets should keep their stepped-up cost basis at the owner's death — erasing unrealized capital gains — or whether those gains should be taxed at transfer.

Taxes on imports — a tool used for revenue, industrial protection, and geopolitical leverage, but with consumer-cost and retaliation trade-offs.

A regular, unconditional cash payment to every adult citizen — proposed variously as poverty relief, automation insurance, and replacement for fragmented welfare programs.

An annual tax on net worth above a threshold (typically tens of millions), proposed as a way to address concentration of wealth and fund public investments.