Republicans Sought to Undercut an Unfavorable Analysis of the Tax Plan
- 6 years ago
Republicans Sought to Undercut an Unfavorable Analysis of the Tax Plan
But on Thursday, hours before they were set to vote on the largest tax cut Congress has considered in years, Senate Republicans opened an assault on
that scorekeeper, the Joint Committee on Taxation, and its analysis, which showed the Senate plan would not, as lawmakers contended, pay for itself but would add $1 trillion to the federal budget deficit.
found the time to produce and make public its macroeconomic analysis of the Senate bill,
when it has yet to produce the same analysis of the House bill that passed weeks ago.”
In a November 28 email shared with , the committee’s chief of staff, Thomas A. Barthold, said the committee had suspended
its work on the House bill dynamic score in hopes of producing an analysis of the Senate bill before a final vote.
Instead, Senate Republicans questioned the timing of the analysis’ release on Thursday,
and a spokeswoman for the Senate Finance Committee released a statement saying the findings are “curious and deserve further scrutiny.”
Republicans say the committee’s model underestimates how workers will respond to lower taxes and how private investment affects growth.
Both the Penn model and the Tax Policy Center’s model found the Senate version would increase deficits by more than $1 trillion
after accounting for growth; the Penn model in particular produced a near-identical score to the joint committee’s.
The Republican response points go after revenue analyses by the committee
and by the Congressional Budget Office, which scores other legislation, saying their findings “can be off to the tune of more than $1.5 trillion over ten years.”
The swift backlash helped defuse concerns about the deficit impact long enough for the bill to pass by a vote of 51 to 49.
But on Thursday, hours before they were set to vote on the largest tax cut Congress has considered in years, Senate Republicans opened an assault on
that scorekeeper, the Joint Committee on Taxation, and its analysis, which showed the Senate plan would not, as lawmakers contended, pay for itself but would add $1 trillion to the federal budget deficit.
found the time to produce and make public its macroeconomic analysis of the Senate bill,
when it has yet to produce the same analysis of the House bill that passed weeks ago.”
In a November 28 email shared with , the committee’s chief of staff, Thomas A. Barthold, said the committee had suspended
its work on the House bill dynamic score in hopes of producing an analysis of the Senate bill before a final vote.
Instead, Senate Republicans questioned the timing of the analysis’ release on Thursday,
and a spokeswoman for the Senate Finance Committee released a statement saying the findings are “curious and deserve further scrutiny.”
Republicans say the committee’s model underestimates how workers will respond to lower taxes and how private investment affects growth.
Both the Penn model and the Tax Policy Center’s model found the Senate version would increase deficits by more than $1 trillion
after accounting for growth; the Penn model in particular produced a near-identical score to the joint committee’s.
The Republican response points go after revenue analyses by the committee
and by the Congressional Budget Office, which scores other legislation, saying their findings “can be off to the tune of more than $1.5 trillion over ten years.”
The swift backlash helped defuse concerns about the deficit impact long enough for the bill to pass by a vote of 51 to 49.