Democrats' Mantra: Tax Cuts Are Evil

From the second President Trump unveiled his plan to reduce federal income taxes, the Democrat clucking began.  The party of Resistance discharged a stream of negatives.  The plan will enrich the wealthy.  It will rob the poor.  The middle class will get shafted.  Tax cuts are evil, evil, evil.

If all this sounds familiar, it's because Democrats dip into their bag of class warfare tricks and pull out the same arguments every time the GOP floats the idea of tax cuts. Their thesis becomes the media narrative, creating an illusion that not a single American wants lower taxes, except the fat cats.

The Tax Policy Center, an virtual arm of the Democrat Party supported by Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, rushed to judgment on Mr. Trump's plan.  Without waiting for the details to be hashed out in Congress, the center howled the government would lose $6.2 trillion in revenue.

That last counterfeit claim is a hackneyed favorite of Democrats.  It is factual that not all tax cuts hike government revenues.  However, evidence exists that many have lined the government's coffers.Those are never mentioned by demagogue Democrats in their anti-tax sermons.

For instance, the federal tax rate for the top one percent was reduced in 1997.  Despite the drop, individual tax revenues rose 9.8 percent that year.  In the following year, tax receipts climbed 10.6 percent.  Tax rates fell but the government took in more money.  Amazing.

The same scenario played out in 1997-1998 when corporate income taxes were sliced.  During the period, income tax revenues actually increased by 28.3 percent the first year and 8.2 percent the following year.  Jobs and investments grew.  Corporations and individuals benefited.

The Mother of All tax cuts occurred in 1981 when President Reagan wielded a meat axe to the federal tax tables. The jobless rate was 9.6 percent when he took office.  When he left, it had dipped to 5.3 percent. Government revenues soared 82 percent from 1981 to 1989. The economy roared.

In every one of the instances cited above, the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) predictions about tax revenues were off the mark.  Keep that in mind when you start reading and hearing about the CBO's dire predictions about revenue shortfalls and soaring deficits triggered by the Trump plan.

The CBO, which supports Congress' budget process, has a long history of being wrong.  The bureaucrats are experts at crunching numbers, but their assumptions often fail to correctly gauge the economic activity fueled by reducing taxes for individuals and corporations.  

Mr. Trump's tax plan needs to be fleshed out in Congress before it can be fairly assessed.  The basic outline requires added specificity.  But it is a step in the right direction.  Americans will benefit from simplification with fewer tax brackets.  Many will pay less in federal taxes.

There will be increased child care tax breaks for couples.  The tax marginal tax rate will drop for upper income earners who pay the lion's share of revenues collected by the government.  Despite the benefits, don't expect the Democrats or the lapdog media to embrace the plan.

The Resistance is banking on Americans' ignorance and gullibility about taxes to win the argument. Class envy is their weapon of choice.  Soak the rich is their battle cry.  Lost in all the rancor will be a rational discussion of how tax policy can jump start America's weakling economy.