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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBernie Sanders Calls ‘Dynamic Scoring’ a Gimmick
Says First President Bush was Right about Voodoo EconomicsTuesday, January 6, 2015
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, today blasted a proposed new House rule that would make the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation use a discredited notion that todays Republicans call dynamic scoring but President George H.W. Bush labeled voodoo economics.
The Republicans have hatched a plan to force the CBO to cook the books and paint a rosy picture of the benefits of trickle-down economics. They call it dynamic scoring. In fact, its a gimmick to help justify more tax cuts for the wealthy and profitable corporations. Its what the first President Bush called voodoo economics and he was right, Sanders said.
The purpose of dynamic scoring is to conceal not reveal how Republican policies will affect the economy, he added.
The basic problem with what the right-wing economists call dynamic scoring is that it requires the CBO to count hypothetical growth as additional revenue. That means counting the chickens before they hatch, Sanders said.
The senator said the main reason Republicans want to change the budget rule is to disguise the impact of their plan to give more tax breaks to the wealthy and large corporations. In fact, part of the reason the deficit is smaller today is that Congress in 2012 finally let tax cuts expire for the top 1 percent.
What history shows, Sanders said, is that when you give tax breaks to the rich and large corporations, the rich get richer, corporate profits climb and the federal deficit soars. In these difficult times, we need realistic economic projections, not discredited theories, not voodoo economics.
In vowing to fight any effort to adopt a similar rule in the Senate, Sanders said former heads of CBO and tax committee opposed dynamic scoring because they said it would force them to provide estimates based on highly uncertain assumptions. The Republicans are politicizing the budget process in a way that will undermine the credibility of the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation, which have provided unbiased, nonpartisan analysis on the cost of tax and spending bills, Sanders said.
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-calls-dynamic-scoring-a-gimmick
randys1
(16,286 posts)you at $2 an hour with no employee protections or benefits.
you choose, which do you want?
moondust
(20,006 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)people donate what they can to this honorable individual.
lordsummerisle
(4,651 posts)ybbor
(1,555 posts)Bernie's not pulling any punches lately.
You get 'em Bernie!
Oldtimeralso
(1,938 posts)Is this scam a way to say by the GOP that "the buck does not stop here", but if it is 50 cents we will the the serfs it is a buck. The people don't need to know.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)... crickets.
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)While this may seem like another example of Washington inside baseball with little impact on the American public, using dynamic scoring for official cost estimates would risk injecting bias into a broadly accepted, non-partisan scoring process that has existed for decades. As a result, it could allow Congress to adopt legislation that increases Federal deficits, while masking its costs.
An article from Shaun Donovan, Director of the Office of Management and Budget
Scuba
(53,475 posts)el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)Harry Reid is still recovering from his injuries - I don't know if Hillary has said anything about it yet.
Bryant
Scuba
(53,475 posts)No Harry, no Hillary, no Chuck, no one in the Party leadership.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)DuckBurp
(302 posts)It was based on the premise that cutting taxes actually increases revenue for the federal government. That fairy tale was debunked back in the 1980s after it was promoted by Reagan. It was just another thinly veiled way to cut taxes for the "job creators" (aka rich people).