GOP Tax Plan Provides Negligible Economic Benefits

The GOP Tax Bill Is a Dangerous Gamble at a Precarious Moment

When President Barack Obama signed the Budget Control Act in August of 2011, he did not do so happily. The bill averted the debt ceiling crisis that had threatened to derail his presidency, but it did so at a high cost: It forced Congress either to agree to big near-term deficit cuts, or to accept strict spending limits over the years to come.It was, as Bloomberg commentator Conor Sen put it this week, the wrong bill for the wrong moment. It sup…

GOP Tax Plan Provides Negligible Economic Benefits

“House Republicans’ tax package would only provide a modest boost to economic growth, according to a new government analysis that’s sure to disappoint GOP lawmakers,” Politico reports. “The plan would increase the average annual growth rate by 0.03 percentage points to 1.86 percent from 1.83 percent, the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation predicts.”

The GOP tax bill is wrong for this economic moment

There are two distinct threats to the U.S. economy of 2025. One is the president's shoot-first-ask-questions-later trade war, which has rattled both consumers and the bond market, not to mention economists. The other is the government's projected annual deficit of…