Politico Pro: U.S. approaches historic red ink after tax reform

Jul 23, 2018
In The News

Politico Pro’s Sarah Ferris shines a light on the GOP’s claims about their tax scam, seven months after passage:

"Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney likes to talk up GOP tax reform as she campaigns for her swing seat in upstate New York this year, one of those clutch races that could determine control of the House.

"Tenney asserted to a local radio station this month that tax cuts have “already been paid for in six months" — a claim that's largely in line with the rest of her party this year.

"But there’s a big problem: Economists say, and a recent string of government reports agree, it’s wrong.

"Evidence is piling up that the Republican party’s signature policy achievement, H.R. 1 (115), will contribute to soaring budget deficits for a decade, a far cry from the GOP's pledge that it would pay for itself.

"A mammoth report from the Congressional Budget Office late last month offered perhaps the bleakest portrait of the GOP tax law so far, predicting that the U.S. is on track to see its largest-ever level of debt within three decades, which could increase the possibility of a fiscal crisis.

"The federal debt is now on track to eclipse the size of the entire U.S. economy by the end of the next decade, and that red ink stems “primarily” from tax and spending legislation signed by President Donald Trump in his first two years, according to that damning report.

“For the people who said, the tax bill is going to change life as we know it, I’m afraid that hasn’t happened," Alan Auerbach, a former aide to the Joint Committee on Taxation, said in an interview."

"However, official data from the Treasury Department, the Office of Management and Budget and the CBO over the last several weeks shows that the tax code changes will, indeed, leave the government awash with red ink amid ever-growing spending.

Last week, the Treasury reported that the federal budget gap widened 16 percent compared to the same point last year, in part because of falling corporate revenues. The total amount of taxes paid by corporations is one-third less than the same time last fiscal year — its lowest level since 2013."

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115th Congress