Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Congress Finds that Tax Increases Don't Close Deficits

That's the conclusion of a study for their own Joint Economic Committee!

The historical evidence suggests that the future tax increases embodied in the recently passed Congressional budget resolution would likely be used to finance additional federal spending, not deficit reduction. A statistical analysis of the relevant data in the 1946-2006 period finds that each $1.00 of additional taxes was associated with $1.07 in additional federal spending. This finding indicates that tax increases have been an ineffective and self-defeating approach to reducing budget deficits...

The cause of the deficit problem does not appear to be inadequate taxes, but rather the political gains from spending, gains that are rising over time, particularly to finance redistributionist activity.

Does this mean that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are getting ready to table the tax increases and look at spending cuts, instead?

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