Will the president’s tax cut pay for itself or not?
Sep 29, 2017, 6:06 AM | Updated: 9:23 am
(File, Associated Press)
(File, Associated Press)
This week, Democrats invited a man named Bruce Bartlett to Capitol Hill to give a little history lesson about this idea that by cutting taxes you create so much growth you actually end up collecting more taxes.
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“I know a bit about this because I invented a lot of these theories.”
Bruce Bartlett was the man who created Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts, which remain the largest tax cuts in American history. And he has one message.
“We did not have a massive increase in growth. In fact, I remember a huge stock market crash in 1987 and another one in 1989 and a recession that began in 1990.”
And that happened even though the Reagan cut had a far bigger incentive for rich people than Trump’s does.
“Because keep in mind the Reagan tax cut … the top rate was 70 percent, he brought that down to 50 percent. Now we’re talking about going from 39.6 to 35, give me a break.”
So here’s a guy who worked for Reagan, who was also making America great again, saying those cuts just made America borrow again.
“The entire Republican theory of tax cuts and tax reform is just complete and total hogwash as far as growth is concerned.”
I know he sounds pretty biased, but I share this simply as the viewpoint of a guy who’s been down this road before. That way, if we do decide to accept the idea that you can cut taxes for free, no one can say we weren’t warned, or that the Russians Facebooked our brains while we weren’t looking.
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