Contributor: Republicans want to fool you into thinking a massive tax cut has zero costs
(LA Times) Congressional Republicans are trying to pass a budget this week with a massive tax cut that they say isn’t a tax cut — sleight-of-hand that depends on an arcane accounting device that would make Ponzi schemers blush. The House could vote on the magic math as early as Tuesday; the Republican-majority Senate shamefully gave it a go-ahead early Saturday morning.
Welcome to Washington’s latest act of budgetary smoke and mirrors.
To understand the scheme, you have to go back to 2017, when Congress passed President Trump’s Tax Cut and Jobs Act, which included $2 trillion in tax reductions that mostly benefited the wealthy. To reduce the cost to U.S. coffers, Congress included a “sunset” clause due to kick in at the end of this year. It correctly used a “current law baseline” that showed revenue rising in 2026. Now, Republicans want to switch to a misleading “current policy baseline,” which — presto, change-o — simply assumes the 2026 revenue gains were never in the picture and allows them to say the extended tax cuts are “free.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/contributor-republicans-want-fool-thinking-171515891.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&segment_id=DY_VTO_CORE&ncid=crm_19908-1475736-20250409-0-&bt_user_id=LwEP%2FvV3aIzoImo91LeDVsRi5kLg5C2QrYX1%2BH%2BplaW0Xus2ocfNH%2FVzRtjeqAeE&bt_ts=1744198444278
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