August 03, 2010

Ever wonder what the GOP alternative to Obama's tax plan is?

Wonder no more: a new report from Citizens for Tax Justice examines the "Economic Freedom Act," which would add an additional $7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade while managing to give the poorest 80 percent of Americans just 12 percent of the tax cuts in 2012 and thereafter.

Among the plan's notable features:
-complete elimination of the income tax on capital gains;
-estate tax repeal;
-eliminating about 3/4 of the corporate income tax;
-a temporary cut in the payroll tax.

CTJ's report suggests that the bill should instead be referred to as the "Endless Borrowing Act," with cause.

There's no indication, of course, that this bill's going to go anywhere. And it's not even accurate to say that this is "the Republican alternative to Obama's tax plan," since the equally entertaining tax cuts proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan are still out there in the ether somewhere.

But the fact that otherwise responsible lawmakers would introduce this bill without specifying where $7 trillion in spending cuts are going to come from suggests that these guys aren't taking the exercise very seriously.

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