Vanessa Williamson
Senior Fellow at Brookings
Berkeley, CA
Experience
- Senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings
- Senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center
Expertise
- U.S. economic policy
- Tax and revenue policy
- Labor
- Wealth Inequality
- Trade
Education
- Harvard University, PhD, Social Policy
- New York University, MA, French Studies
- New York University, BA, French Language and Literature
Recent Coverage
FEB 27, 2026
Scripps: Trump touts tariffs as path to end income taxes; experts skeptical
“The United States used to rely almost exclusively at a federal level on tariff revenue — and Americans hated it. That is the reason we have an income tax today, because tariffs raised prices for consumers. People knew it would make taxes fairer because it would be linked to your ability to pay,” she said.
Although Trump has suggested foreign governments pay tariffs, in reality companies pay them when goods are imported. Many firms say those costs are passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices.
“The cost of the tariff falls on consumers and on poorer people, and the income tax falls on richer people more than on poorer people,” Williamson said. “It’s just a fairer way to raise taxes.”
JAN 21, 2026
Axios: IRS green-lights DOGE overhaul, posing these risks to taxpayers, experts say
Vanessa Williamson, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, tells Axios that given the Social Security lawsuit, “there is every reason to worry about the integrity and security of taxpayer data at IRS.” Williamson said that she is “wary of privatization and outsourcing,” describing the process as “more expensive” and risks an agency “trapped with ineffectual vendors.”
DEC 17, 2025
Reuters: Behind contentious US democracy, boring tax policy.
Ahead of the last U.S. presidential election in 2024, I imagined a public debate where candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden would be questioned on fiscal policy by accountants and actuaries. If ever a future election features such a panel, it should include Vanessa Williamson. I spoke with Williamson this week about the lessons she sees for current revenue debates. Where Williamson is coming from: she worries about growing inequality and says Republicans have become “a very extreme anti-tax party” but faults lefties for not stressing the virtues of taxpaying.
MARCH 5, 2025
Marketplace: Halving the IRS workforce in the middle of tax season
“I think there’s no scenario in which it doesn’t endanger the federal revenue,” says Vanessa Williamson, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, of the Trump administration’s play to layoff workers at the IRS.
February 20, 2025
AP: IRS layoffs could hurt revenue collection and foil efforts to go after rich tax dodgers, experts say
Vanessa Williamson, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, said on a Thursday call with reporters that the layoffs at the IRS will disproportionately harm enforcement efforts.
“When you underpay and understaff the IRS, the agency doesn’t have the power or the resources it needs to go after wealthy tax evaders with their high priced lawyers,” she said, adding, “The result is, of course, a disaster for revenue.”
MAY 29, 2024
The Progress Network: Red, White, and Due: Talking Taxes with Vanessa Williamson
Interested in speaking with Vanessa Williamson?
About Vanessa
Vanessa Williamson is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings, and a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. She studies taxation and democracy in America.
Her forthcoming book, “The Price of Democracy,” reveals the revolutionary power of taxation in American history (Basic Books, September 2025). She is also the author of “Read My Lips: Why Americans Are Proud to Pay Taxes,” and, with Harvard professor Theda Skocpol, “The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism.”
She has written on school segregation, tax opinion, and tax politics in the Washington Post; about the Tea Party, anti-union legislation and voter registration at income tax filing in the New York Times; about taxpayer citizenship in the Atlantic; about philanthropy and austerity and white supremacy in Dissent; and about democracy and organizing for Teen Vogue. She has discussed her research on NPR’s “Marketplace”, C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal”, CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS”, CNBC’s “Squawk Box”, and MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.” She received her Ph.D. in social policy from Harvard University.
