Progressive Activist Oren Cass Unaware of Republican State Tax Cut Revolution

American Compass chief economist unaware of red states cutting taxes: “I haven’t researched at the state level on what Republicans have done.”

In a debate with Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist this week, progressive activist Oren Cass urged conservatives to abandon their commitment to oppose tax increases.

Cass endorsed a federal corporate income tax rate hike, a federal personal income tax hike to the top two marginal rates, a payroll tax hike and a financial transactions tax.

When asked by Norquist to name a GOP-run state that successfully enacted Cass’s vision of tax increases, Cass was unable to name one. Because there isn’t one.

In fact, Cass seemed entirely unaware of America’s state tax cut achievements. He said: “I haven’t researched at the state level on what Republicans have done.”

Norquist pointed out that the Republican party has become the party that will not raise your taxes, which most Republicans put in writing by signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a written commitment to voters.

He noted that before 1994 — the year the Republican Party credibly become the party that would not raise your taxes — Republicans had only won full control of the U.S. House and Senate twice in the previous 62 years (1932 – 1994). Since then, Republicans have won full control of the U.S. House and Senate 18 years and Democrats six years.

On the national level, President Trump won by campaigning and delivering on significant across the board tax cuts.

At the state level, GOP-run states are moving to flat single rate taxes and then zero income taxes while Democrat run states raise taxes.

Cass blurted out a 15-year-old progressive talking point about Kansas tax cuts, apparently unaware the state is now a leader in the nationwide movement to lower and flatten income taxes.

Virtually every Republican-led state has cut its income tax since 2020.

Eight states moved to a flat tax in the last eight years alone: Ohio, Louisiana, Kentucky, Iowa, Idaho, Georgia, Arizona, and Mississippi.

Five states have joined the “path to zero” income tax, putting excess revenue into income tax cuts until the tax is phased out completely: South Carolina, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Mississippi, and West Virginia.

The momentum is only growing, with ten states set to have lower rates in 2027 – many of which were made retroactive to 2026.

In Kansas, more than two-thirds of both the GOP supermajority House and Senate voted to override Governor Laura Kelly’s (D) veto of legislation that caps growth in income tax collections and gradually reduces the 5.7% top rate down to a 4% flat tax.

With the rate now at 5.58%, GOP gubernatorial candidates are looking to expand that spending cap to all tax revenue and get to a flat tax even more quickly.

Once the state achieves a 4% flat rate, Kansas’s corporate income tax rate will see similar reductions until it, too, hits 4%. Employees and consumers will benefit in the form of higher wages and lower prices as the tax burden passed along by businesses is reduced accordingly.

GOP-led states are seeking to mirror the explosive economic and population growth in the eight states that already levy no personal income tax. Lawmakers in these zero-income-tax engines of prosperity are not resting on their laurels; as their neighbors catch up, many are reducing taxes elsewhere and enshrining 2/3 supermajority requirements into their constitutions to preempt any efforts to impose an income tax in the future.

Oren Cass should do his homework. Republican-led states are slashing taxes and keeping spending under control, while their Democrat counterparts are moving in the opposite direction.

The results speak for themselves: red states will continue to capitalize on their growing economic success with more tax cuts as people and businesses vote with their feet, flocking to the dozens of states that are committed to small government and a low-tax environment.

This movement is reflected in the annual U-Haul rankings on inbound vs. outbound moves. The U-Haul Growth Index shows Americans continue to move away from high-tax states in favor of low-tax and no-income-tax states.

The ten best ranked states in the index have significantly lower personal income tax rates than the index’s ten worst ranked states:

3.5 percent: Average top state personal income tax rate of the 10 best ranked states.

7.2 percent: Average top state personal income tax rate of the 10 worst ranked states.

As a group, the 10 worst ranked states impose a top personal income tax rate more than twice as high as the 10 best ranked states.

Now let’s look at the top and bottom five, where the tax contrast is even starker:

2.0 percent: Average top state personal income tax rate of the five best ranked states.

9.8 percent: Average top state personal income tax rate of the five worst ranked states.

As a group, the five worst ranked states impose a top personal income tax rate nearly five times as high as the five best ranked states.

Low-tax and zero-income-tax red states will continue to grow.

The red states will not follow Cass’s advice to raise taxes. Blue states are already doing that.

Cass made the remarks on an episode of “Conservative Crossroads” hosted by Henry Olsen.

The ATR state tax competition map can be found here.