After months of discussion, committee meetings, and negotiations, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump on December 22, 2017. The bill was passed along party lines, with zero Democrats voting to support the bill. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called the bill “monumental, brazen theft from the American middle class.” Republicans, on the other hand, tout the passage as historic reform that will benefit all Americans. Despite the partisanship in Washington, the American people are beginning to change their minds about the new law. Just a few days after its passage, citizens were overwhelmingly against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. However, the margins have tightened recently, and only 40% of Americans say the law will have a negative impact on the country, according to a Pew Research Center poll.

Companies, both large and small, have largely responded to the TCJA by giving bonuses to its employees and pledging to invest millions of dollars in the US economy. AT&T, for example, is giving bonuses of 1,000 dollars to over 200,000 of its non-executive employees; Walmart has decided to raise its hourly minimum wage to $11, and Apple unveiled plans that would bring back almost $252 billion in cash it held abroad. President Trump responded to all of this in a tweet, saying “I promised that my policies would allow companies like Apple to bring massive amounts of money back to the United States. Great to see Apple follow through as a result of TAX CUTS.”

Ultimately, the law provides a tax cut for 80% of Americans, according to the Brooking Institution. It also lowered the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and five out of the seven individual tax rates were lowered as well. Only time will tell how the United States economy responds to this bill, but both parties agree that higher wages and more jobs is a good thing for the United States of America.