From the accompanying WaPo story:
The national debt is likely to balloon under tax policies championed by three of the four major Republican candidates for president, according to an independent analysis of tax and spending proposals so far offered by the candidates.
The lone exception is Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who would pair a big reduction in tax rates with even bigger cuts in government services, slicing about $2 trillion from future borrowing.
According to the report — set for release Thursday by U.S. Budget Watch, a project of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget — former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum and former House speaker Newt Gingrich would do the most damage to the nation’s finances, offering tax and spending policies likely to require trillions of dollars in fresh borrowing.
Both men have proposed to sharply cut taxes but have not identified spending cuts sufficient to make up for the lost cash, the report said. By 2021, the debt would rise by about $4.5 trillion under Santorum’s policies and by about $7 trillion under those advocated by Gingrich, pushing the portion of the debt held by outside investors to well over 100 percent of the nation’s economy.
The red ink would gush less heavily under former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the report said — at least under earlier Romney proposals that paired $1.35 trillion in tax cuts with $1.2 trillion in spending reductions and would leave the debt rising on a trajectory that closely tracks current policies.
But that probably changed Wednesday, when Romney tacked to the right and proposed to cut federal income tax rates by an additional 20 percent for all earners — an idea that could easily slash federal revenues by another $3.5 trillion over the next decade, said Edward Kleinbard, a University of Southern California law professor and former chief tax analyst for Congress.
In a late-night addendum Wednesday, analysts for U.S. Budget Watch set a slightly lower price for the new tax provisions, suggesting that Romney’s entire budget framework would add about $2.6 trillion to the debt by 2021.
Only Paul emerged as a fiscal conservative in the report. His policies would cut tax revenues by more than $5 trillion over the next decade, the report said, but the revenue loss would be offset by more than $7 trillion in spending cuts, including deep reductions in defense and federal health programs.
Santorum was so damned pompous about his illusory small budget history in the Senate yesterday night. What a fool. Walk off a cliff please!
ReplyDeleteOnly Paul emerged as a fiscal conservative in the report. His policies would cut tax revenues by more than $5 trillion over the next decade, the report said, but the revenue loss would be offset by more than $7 trillion in spending cuts, including deep reductions in defense and federal health programs.
ReplyDelete----- It is not defense but offense where Dr Paul speak about reduction.
Dr. Paul is the only True Conservative candidate that would cut the spending, and your correct it's offense spending cuts from the military, the military complex all the waste and abuse that Govt creates. He is the only Honest man who stands by his record for 30yrs and is even known to stand alone to do whats right for the American people. The rest are WA insider Bureaucrats who would get us in more debt. RON PAUL is the only person that can be trusted. People need to wake up and see the truth, b/c the media sure doesn't tell it.
DeleteI like Paul the best, but in the other guys defense, I question the analysis this article is reporting. Specifically, what kind of microeconomic analysis or forcasting did Edward Kleinbard include in his study of Romney's plan. Assuming that tax cuts reduce revenues gives the impression that they are using a static analysis.
ReplyDelete