POLITICS/TAXES/TREASURY: “The Treasury Department said Monday [12-11-17] that the GOP tax plan currently before Congress would need an assist from other Trump administration priorities to pay for itself.
Tax cuts alone aren’t enough, Treasury said in a one-page analysis, citing welfare reform and infrastructure spending as additional boosts to the economy.
The analysis assumes that an economy led by Republicans would boost revenues by $1.8 trillion over a decade — more than enough to pay for the roughly $1.5 trillion in tax cuts envisioned by Republicans.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has been saying for months that his department would produce an analysis that proved the tax cuts would be fully paid for, and other top Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have insisted they have no doubt that would be the case.
The White House drew some criticism earlier this year for assuming that economic growth would hit close to 3 percent a year under President Donald Trump’s watch, and Democrats quickly lashed out at what Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer dubbed ‘fake math’ in the new analysis.”
-Bernie Becker, “Tax cuts alone won’t cover full cost of GOP plan, Treasury says,” Politico, Dec. 11, 2017 01:07pm