Washington takes its share first.
The American Prosperity and Philanthropy Plan begins from a different premise. The first dollars earned through work should belong to the worker, the family, and the community before they belong to Washington.
Under the framework, the first $50,000 of earned income would be exempt from federal income taxation. Married couples would benefit individually, allowing working families to keep $100,000 more of their earnings before Washington takes its cut. The plan would also strengthen charitable giving by restoring a ‘Trump One’ era policy to a full 100% deduction for cash contributions to public charities, reinforcing the churches, schools, shelters, pregnancy centers, civic associations, and local institutions that form the backbone of American civil society.
To help offset the shift away from taxing production, the American Prosperity and Philanthropy Plan also contemplates a modest nationwide sales tax. The principle is straightforward. Stop punishing work, wages, savings, family formation, and productive labor as the government’s first revenue source. Begin shifting the American mindset away from taxing production to a system that allows workers to keep more of what they earn.
As President Ronald Reagan said, “If you want more of it, subsidize it. If you want less of it, tax it.” It is no wonder why we are waking up to an America that is providing less production. This is not a novel idea. It is a restoration of what America used to be.
For most of American history, from our founding almost 250 years ago until the modern income tax era began in 1913, the federal government did not operate by taxing every worker’s wages from the first dollar earned. The first permanent income tax under the Sixteenth Amendment was remarkably modest by today’s standards. It taxed only 1 percent on income above $3,000, roughly more than $100,000 in today’s dollars.
In other words, the original income tax was not designed to tax the daily labor of ordinary working families. It was aimed at very high incomes. America built much of its early prosperity on a different model. The federal government relied far more heavily on tariffs, excise taxes, and consumption-based revenue than on taxing wages and productive labor. The worker’s first dollar was not treated as Washington’s first claim.
The American Prosperity and Philanthropy Plan will restore that older American instinct. Republicans are debating reconciliation as though it were 2017. Their voters are living in 2026.
Much of Washington’s attention is understandably focused on extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It should be. Allowing one of the most successful conservative economic reforms in a generation to expire would amount to a massive tax increase on American families and businesses. President Trump’s tax reforms helped drive investment, wage growth, and economic confidence. Preserving those gains should
be a central objective of reconciliation 3.0. But preserving yesterday’s achievements is not the same thing as solving today’s challenges.
President Trump reshaped the Republican Party. The coalition that delivered him to the White House bears little resemblance to the Republican coalition of twenty years ago. It is less defined by Wall Street and more defined by Main Street; electricians and entrepreneurs, police officers and plumbers, young parents and small-business owners. It is made up of Americans who earn their living with a paycheck rather than a portfolio.
Yet much of Washington still approaches economic policy as though the primary challenge facing the country is simply maximizing growth statistics. Growth matters. But the political question dominating American life today is not growth alone. It is affordability.
For decades, Americans accepted a basic bargain. Work hard. Act responsibly. Build a family. Contribute to your community. In return, you could reasonably expect to build a stable and prosperous life. Today, millions of Americans are no longer certain that bargains exist.
A young couple can graduate from college, find stable employment, get married, and still wonder whether they can afford a home. Families earning incomes that once signified financial security now find themselves carefully calculating childcare expenses, insurance premiums, mortgage payments, and grocery bills. Many are postponing major life decisions not because they lack ambition, but because they lack confidence that the future will be more affordable than the present.
The economic anxiety shaping modern politics is not primarily about unemployment. It is not even primarily about inflation. It is about the growing perception that the cost of building an American life has become detached from the rewards of productive work.
That reality explains much of the political realignment of the last decade. Voters were not demanding socialism. They were not demanding larger government programs. They were asking whether anyone in Washington understood what it now costs to raise a family, buy a home, save for retirement, or build wealth.
To his credit, President Trump understood that frustration long before most political professionals. His success rested in large part on recognizing that economic policy and family life are inseparable. The Child Tax Credit, Trump Accounts, and the broader focus on workers rather than institutions all reflect an important insight. Economic policy should strengthen the conditions that allow families to flourish.
The next step is asking whether our tax code reflects that same principle. At the moment, it does not.
The federal government taxes the first dollar a worker earns. Before the mortgage is paid. Before groceries are purchased. Before retirement savings are set aside. Before charitable contributions are made. Before a parent invests in a child’s future.
Why does Washington take its share first?
The American Prosperity and Philanthropy Plan starts from a different premise. The first dollars earned through work should belong to the worker, the family, and the community before they belong to Washington. Reasonable people will debate the details. They should. Serious policy deserves serious scrutiny. But the larger principle behind the American Prosperity and Philanthropy Plan is difficult to dismiss.
Why should the federal government tax the first dollar of a young father’s paycheck before he buys groceries for his children? Why should Washington tax the first dollar of a young mother’s income before she pays childcare? If Republicans truly intend to be the party of working Americans, that question must be at the center of reconciliation.
For years, politicians have expressed concern about declining birthrates, delayed marriage, weakening civic institutions, and the erosion of social trust. Yet these challenges are not disconnected from economic reality. Family formation becomes harder when affordability declines. Communities become weaker when people have fewer resources to invest in them. Charitable institutions struggle when families have less disposable income to support them. Public policy cannot solve every cultural problem. But it should not make those problems worse.
The Plan is built around that conviction. It recognizes that prosperity is not merely a statistic reported in Washington. Prosperity is the ability to get married, raise a family, buy a home, save for the future, give generously, and participate in community.
The broader question confronting Republicans is whether reconciliation 3.0 will preserve existing policy or define the next chapter of conservative governance.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was designed to unleash economic growth. It succeeded. The challenge before lawmakers today is different. Americans want to know whether prosperity is accessible. They want to know whether hard work still leads somewhere. They want to know whether their children will inherit greater opportunity than they did.
The American Prosperity and Philanthropy Plan answers that challenge directly. It says that working families should keep their first dollars. It says that charitable giving should be strengthened, not sidelined. It says that local institutions matter more than federal dependency. It says America should stop taxing production as though labor exists first for the government and only second for the family.
This is the shift America needs.
It is time to restore what used to be. It is time to remember that the income tax was never originally designed to reach into every working family’s paycheck from the first dollar earned. It is time to stop treating productive work as Washington’s first revenue source. It is time to make the American Dream affordable again.
John Casey
John Caseyis Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Donum LLC, where he works to strengthen and sustain Judeo-Christian conservative organizations through long-term strategic development and philanthropic engagement. Formed by his studies at St. Joseph Seminary College and inspired by the Benedictine principle of Ora et Labora (“Pray and Work”), Casey is dedicated to advancing faith, family, and Christian education. He serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Holy Trinity Academy in Louisiana and is a husband and father of four.
