SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Politics : The Trump Presidency
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  
To: zzpat who wrote (65058)4/6/2018 3:25:09 PM
From: TimF  Read Replies (1) of 360798
 
"Record surpluses" might seem to indicate large surpluses, but depending on how you measure budget balances (whether you include intragovernment transfers from the Social Security Administration as debt or not) it was either a deficit, or only small surpluses or (if your don't count such transfers and just consider changes in debt to the public).

And such surpluses (if one is going to consider them surpluses) would not have continued even without any tax cut. Deficits were coming, you can argue that the tax cut increased them but either way large deficits would have occurred. And the revenue loss, even using static projections and assuming no negative economic effects, and no increase in tax avoidance and evasion when rates are higher (not a reasonable assumption but I'll go with it for now) was much smaller than the increase in spending, so it was the extra spending not the tax cuts that caused the deficits.

As for politicians from previous generations, they also reasonably share a lot of the blame. They created programs that automatically spend more and more money. The entitlement programs are not just larger factors than any tax cut in our history, they will be so much larger going forward that compared to them the impact of any tax cut ever in the US, is negligible.
Report TOU ViolationShare This Post
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  

HomeMailHotSubjectMarksPeopleMarksKeepersSettings
Terms Of UseContact UsCopyright/IP PolicyPrivacy PolicyAbout UsFAQAdvertise on SI
© 2026 Knight Sac Media.  Data provided by Twelve Data, Alpha Vantage, and CityFALCON News