Senate Republicans Embrace Plan for $1.5 Trillion Tax Cut
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans, abandoning a key fiscal doctrine, agreed on Tuesday to move forward on a budget
that would add to the federal deficit in order to pave the way for a $1.5 trillion tax cut over the next 10 years.
“It is extremely disheartening that the Senate budget may be abandoning that commitment.”
The tax cuts, she added, “could result in debt as large as the economy in just over a decade and take us into uncharted waters after that.”
Michael A. Peterson, president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, said
that the national debt topping $20 trillion should not be an invitation for Republicans in Congress to exacerbate a problem that they were elected to fix
“Just going from 2 to 3 percent growth adds about $14 trillion of economic activity over a decade, $2 to $3 trillion of revenue
to the federal government,” said Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin and a member of the Budget Committee.
“The president and members of Congress have spent years warning of our large and growing national debt and have said their goal was to pursue tax reform
that doesn’t make that debt worse,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee have been wrestling for weeks over how big a tax cut is feasible and have been under pressure to reach a budget deal this month so
that the work on tax legislation can officially begin in October.
Republican lawmakers, who for years have complained about the country’s deteriorating fiscal situation, are now turning to arcane budget arguments and making the case
that tax cuts will unleash enough economic growth to compensate for lost revenue.