Honest debate within the political Right requires the populist critics of traditional conservatism and free markets to stop hiding behind vague “common good” terminology and state in plain English what they want the government to do.

If “common good” economic policy means lower taxes and less regulation, I’m for it. If it means higher taxes and heavy regulation, I’m against it.

Unfortunately, leading populist think tankers and politicians have made it clear they want to raise taxes on American households.

Oren Cass, the founder and “Chief Economist” of American Compass, recently laid out a $5 trillion laundry list of tax increases on individuals and businesses, including a payroll tax hike on all Americans earning over $185,000.

Cass, whose organization runs the Common Good Economics grant program, is an influential voice in populist circles. American Compass was dubbed “the cutting edge of populist economic and cultural thinking” by Steve Bannon. Vice President JD Vance referred to Cass as “a friend,” and a “very fascinating guy” during his recent interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

During an appearance on the “Conservative Crossroads” podcast released last week, Cass backed new tax increases and the reversal of key provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), President Trump’s signature legislative achievement.

Specifically, Cass called to “take the top couple of [individual] rates back up to where they were before TCJA,” and to hike “the corporate rate back up to 25 percent.”

Raising the top income tax rate to the pre-Trump level of 39.6% was Kamala Harris’s and Joe Biden’s campaign position. Cass thought they didn’t go far enough and would raise the “top couple of rates.” This is a tax hike on people who make things – the small and mid-sized businesses that file their taxes on the individual side of the tax code and employ over 60% of the nation’s workforce. This includes the manufacturers, welders, builders, metalworkers, contractors, etc., who, in 2025, wrote a letter to Republican lawmakers urging them to oppose “any effort to increase income tax rates.” The Republicans listened and made the Trump individual rates permanent law.

Cass’s proposed corporate rate hike is a tax increase on American workers. The corporate income tax is how Democrats hide the ball on who pays taxes. According to the Tax Foundation, workers bear an estimated 70% of the corporate income tax in the form of lower wages. The Cass plan would also hamstring American competition with China, imposing a combined federal-state tax rate of 29%, higher than China’s conventional 25% rate and its preferred 15% corporate tax rate on companies deemed “high and new technology enterprises.”

After calling to reverse the Trump tax cuts, Cass went on to endorse Elizabeth Warren’s $800 billion financial transaction tax, a key pillar of her anti-Wall Street tax plan during her failed presidential campaign.

Cass topped off his tax hike wish list by calling to uncap the Social Security payroll tax, currently capped at roughly $185,000, raising taxes on millions of taxpayers.

Alarmingly, at least one Republican Senator has already followed Cass’s advice to hike payroll taxes.

In June, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), a self-styled populist Republican, joined Elizabeth Warren in a New York Times op-ed announcing they would soon be introducing legislation to fully eliminate the payroll tax cap, which they themselves label a $3 trillion tax increase.

Eliminating the payroll tax cap would impose a 56% combined top rate on small and midsize businesses in Ohio. It would shrink the U.S. economy by 1.2% and kill 1.3 million jobs.

The Moreno-Warren plan faced widespread backlash from conservatives, including opposition from the Heritage Foundation, Club for Growth, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and even Moreno’s fellow Republican Senator from Ohio, John Husted, who is currently running to keep his seat.

Even Hillary Clinton previously opposed lifting the payroll tax cap, pointing out that it would raise taxes on “police officers, firefighters and the like.” Cass, however, endorsed the Moreno payroll tax hike specifically for pushing Republicans “toward an approach that puts revenue on the table.”

Facing stiff conservative opposition, six weeks have now gone by without Moreno introducing an actual bill. Moreno might have let Cass walk him into traffic by raising taxes, but other Republicans and conservatives should learn from this mistake and stay far away.

Raising taxes is a betrayal of core conservative principles. No one on the Right should endorse the idea that the government is entitled to 50% of any dollar any American earns. You can’t slap a “common good” label on the same policies Elizabeth Warren has pushed since arriving in the Senate and call it conservative.

Across the country, Republicans are campaigning this cycle on the Trump tax cuts. At the state level, 12 Republican-run states cut income taxes last year, and 26 states have passed legislation enacting either a zero or flat income tax rate. Six in 10 Americans say they pay too much in taxes and only 3% say they pay too little.

It seems the “populist” Right still has some work to do selling their tax hikes to the public. They can count me out.

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Mike Palicz is the Vice President of Federal Affairs at Americans for Tax Reform.

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The ‘Common Good’ Right Wants To Raise Taxes On The Common Man