Michael Konczal, the vice president of policy and research at the Economic Security Project, said a tax cut won’t help people “with the fundamental challenges they face on affordability, which are in large part things like health care and housing, which need a much different kind of government response”—a more ambitious response, that is, like a public option for health care and public funding for childcare. The government already doesn’t have enough resources for its current programs, he said, and the idea that a well-funded government can help solve problems is a core tenet of the Democratic Party.

“I don’t think we can win an argument where we’re arguing taxes are fundamentally a punishment, as opposed to the idea that these are a necessary component to make sure that we have good things in life and that we’re economically secure, and that we can fund the programs that help a market economy, make sure that people can find jobs and are taken care of with health care, and have good schools, and have safe communities, and have a secure retirement, and so forth,” he said.