On Dec. 22, 2017, President Donald Trump signed into law the ”Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” the most far-reaching overhaul of the U.S. tax system in decades, reducing the corporate tax rate to its lowest since 1939 and cutting individual taxes for households until 2025. Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders predicts the “bill will be remembered as one of the greatest robberies in history,” and The Atlantic called the bill an “extraordinary inequality accelerant that may do very little for growth.” Conservative economic theorists argue these changes will create more wealth for everyone. Perhaps only time will tell. But these partisan portrayals raise an interesting question about the purpose of a tax code: Should it be used as a tool to address income inequality? And can Catholic social teaching offer a non-partisan lens through which we might address this question?

Join St. Thomas professors Scott Taylor, senior distinguished fellow at the School of Law, and Robert Kennedy, professor of Catholic Studies, when they debate whether the U.S. tax code ought to be used as a tool to address income inequality. Fr. Daniel Griffith, Wenger Family Faculty Fellow and Chaplain of the Murphy Institute, will moderate the program.