Combine text files column-wise

paste file1 file2 | column -s $'\t' -t

To address the “empty cell” controversy, we just
need the -n option to column:

$ paste <(echo foo; echo; echo barbarbar) <(seq 3) | column -s $'\t' -t
foo        1
2
barbarbar  3

$ paste <(echo foo; echo; echo barbarbar) <(seq 3) | column -s $'\t' -tn
foo        1
           2
barbarbar  3