If you think that's scary, contemplate this:
The non-partisan Pew Charitable Trusts estimated in May 2010 that extending some or all of the tax cuts would have the following impact under these scenarios:
Making the tax cuts permanent for all taxpayers, regardless of income, would increase the national debt $3.3 trillion over the next 10 years.Limiting the extension to individuals making less than $200,000 and married couples earning less than $250,000 would increase the debt about $2.2 trillion in the next decade.Extending the tax cuts for all taxpayers for only two years would cost $561 billion over the next 10 years. [27]The non-partisan Congressional Research Service has estimated the 10-year revenue loss from extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts beyond 2010 at $2.9 trillion, with an additional $606 billion in debt service costs (interest), for a combined total of $3.5 trillion. [28] en.wikipedia.org
So what do you think is going to happen to all the Republican deficit hawks if they take control of the government after the election? Current budget scoring assumes the tax cuts will expire, so that $3 trillion is going to wipe out any alleged gain on the deficit from the laborious deal cut to escape from the idiotic summer flirtation with default episode. Of course Romney would be better than Gingrich, I think Romney's mostly just committed to making the Bush cuts permanent, Newt's plan is a 15% flat tax with a total exemption for investment income. So the Buffetts and Romneys of the world would pay 0% instead of their current 15% or so.
Then there's Ron Paul:
Texas Rep. Ron Paul proposes repealing the income tax and doing away with the Internal Revenue Service, while drastically reducing government spending.
money.msn.com
Um. I imagine that whoever gets the Republican nomination will blab a lot about the miracle of supply side economics when the subject of the deficit and national debt come up. From the reality based community perspective, the odds of things getting better if the Rs win seem remote. Personally, I think if Obama won, and the economy sort of got back to normal, and the Bush cuts were allowed to expire, and last summer's spending deal was left in place, things would look much better, or at least sort of ok. That doesn't seem like a particularly radical plan, but the odds of all that happening don't seem real good, either. |
