Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 01:39 pm
Sen. Bernie Sanders blasted an idea from Paul Ryan and other House Republicans that would justify their tax cuts for the wealthy by cooking the books and rigging how costs are counted in legislation.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has been working behind the scenes for months to try to change the way the Congressional Budget Office calculates the cost of legislation. Specifically, Ryan wants to force the CBO to use a discredited scoring method that will hide the real cost of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.
Sen. Sanders blasted the Republican plan to cook the books,
The Republicans have hatched a plan to force the CBO to cook the books and paint a rosy picture of the benefits of trickle-down economics. They call it ‘dynamic scoring.’ In fact, it’s a gimmick to help justify more tax cuts for the wealthy and profitable corporations. It’s what the first President Bush called voodoo economics – and he was right.
The purpose of dynamic scoring is to conceal – not reveal – how Republican policies will affect the economy.
The basic problem with what the right-wing economists call “dynamic scoring” is that it requires the CBO to count hypothetical growth as additional revenue. “That means counting the chickens before they hatch.
The senator said the main reason Republicans want to change the budget rule is to disguise the impact of their plan to give more tax breaks to the wealthy and large corporations. In fact, part of the reason the deficit is smaller today is that Congress in 2012 finally let tax cuts expire for the top 1 percent.
What history shows is that when you give tax breaks to the rich and large corporations, the rich get richer, corporate profits climb and the federal deficit soars. In these difficult times, we need realistic economic projections, not discredited theories, not voodoo economics.
The Republicans are politicizing the budget process in a way that will undermine the credibility of the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation, which have provided unbiased, nonpartisan analysis on the cost of tax and spending bills.
Republicans are refusing to face the reality that tax cuts for the wealthy don’t grow the economy. Instead, they are trying to rewrite the rules in order to hide their policy failures. Sen. Sanders (I-VT) is not about to let Republicans cover up their gifts to corporations and the wealthy without a fight.
Voodoo economics is back, but this time Democrats and Bernie Sanders won’t let the American people get fooled again.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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