POST OP-ED: Giving Americans a Fatter Tax Refund is Exactly What a Republican ‘Affordability’ Push Should Look Like

By The New York Post Editorial Board

Here’s some actual good news for tax season, which began Monday: Refunds are set to soar by about $1,000 on average, or as much as 30%.

Thanks to President Donald Trump and the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which not only preserves the lower tax rates set by the prez’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, but also ushers in a wide range of newtax cuts and deductions that’ll save Americans literally trillions — including on their 2025 tax bill.

This is what the Republican approach to “affordability” looks like.

(Yet it’s far from the only such gain: Check out falling prices at the pump, for starters.)

And while parts of the OBBBA are retroactive to Jan. 1, 2025 — shrinking your liability for last year — other provisions mean lower tax bills going forward.

OK: Part of this year’s bonus comes because the bill didn’t pass until midyear, so many of us overpaid in 2025, and so will get more back.

But it wasn’t guaranteed: Democrats wanted tax rates to rise for nearly every income bracket as the 2017 cuts expired; Republicans instead passed OBBBA to make the lower rates permanent.

It also scrapped taxes on tips and overtime pay, introduced a $6,000 deduction for seniors and boosted child tax credits plus the standard deduction and SALT (state and local taxes) deduction, as well as allowing you to deduct interest up to $10,000 on loans for new, US-made cars.

In all, these breaks will save taxpayers an estimated $129 billion in total for 2025 alone.

This isn’t just relief from the high prices left by Bidenflation: It’s a boost to the entire US economy.

OBBBA’s impact is a big reason why early estimates are that economic growth topped a 4% rate in the fourth quarter last year, and why 5% growth for all of 2026 seems within reach.

Getting the economy booming, with rising wages for the working class, is by far the best recipe for making life more affordable for all Americans.

The big, beautiful Trump tax refund

"Here’s some actual good news for tax season, which began Monday: Refunds are set to soar by about $1,000 on average, or as much as 30%."https://t.co/3PGZHvpvF4

— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) January 28, 2026

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