News bits: Tax cuts and the federal debt; Tax code commentary; Etc.

 The Center for American Progress wrote:

Tax Cuts Are Primarily Responsible for the Increasing Debt Ratio

Without the Bush and Trump tax cuts, debt as a percentage of the economy would be declining permanently

The need to increase the debt limit has focused attention on the size and trajectory of the federal debt. Long-term projections show that federal debt as a percentage of the U.S. economy is on a path to grow indefinitely, with increased noninterest spending due to demographic changes such as increasing life expectancy, declining fertility, and decreased immigration and rising health care costs permanently outstripping revenues under projections based on current law. House Republican leaders have used this fact to call for spending cuts, but it does not address the true cause of rising debt: Tax cuts initially enacted during Republican trifectas in the past 25 years slashed taxes disproportionately for the wealthy and profitable corporations, severely reducing federal revenues. In fact, relative to earlier projections, spending is down, not up. But revenues are down significantly more. If not for the Bush tax cuts and their extensions—as well as the Trump tax cuts—revenues would be on track to keep pace with spending indefinitely, and the debt ratio (debt as a percentage of the economy) would be declining. Instead, these tax cuts have added $10 trillion to the debt since their enactment and are responsible for 57 percent of the increase in the debt ratio since 2001, and more than 90 percent of the increase in the debt ratio if the one-time costs of bills responding to COVID-19 and the Great Recession are excluded. Eventually, the tax cuts are projected to grow to more than 100 percent of the increase.

No doubt, nearly all or all radical right Republican elites, propagandists and major donors would vehemently disagree with this analysis if they were aware of it. They blame the Democrats as usual, without regard for contrary facts, also as usual. The question is this: Is this analysis basically correct?

Multiple choice Q: If the CAP analysis is correct, why aren't the Dems constantly pounding on it in their messaging?

A - The Dems are unaware of this analysis

B - The Dems do not believe the analysis

C - The Dems are shockingly incompetent about their messaging

D - The Dems are actually old fashioned horse and sparrow economic nonsense Republicans, not the radical right dictator-loving freaks that dominate the GOP today

I'm leaning toward D, but C seems just as plausible too. Maybe its both C and D about equally.

Democrats too?

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The Peter G. Peterson Foundation comments on the tax code:

INSUFFICIENT REVENUES

It would be one thing if our tax code were designed to fund all the promises we’re making, but it’s not. The U.S. tax system does not generate enough revenues to cover the spending levels promised.

Our tax code is also overly complex, confusing, inefficient, and unfair. For example, it remains riddled with tax expenditures, or “tax breaks,” that provide financial benefits to specific activities, entities, and groups of people. Those tax breaks, which total $1.7 trillion in 2022, increase annual deficits and can create market distortions that are damaging to economic growth and productivity.

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Multiple sources are reporting a deal on the debt bomb has been reached, but it is unclear if enough radical House Republicans will support it. If not, it looks like a debt default is more likely on the horizon than not. One point the WaPo mentioned is this:

Claws back some money for the IRS

Despite sparing domestic programs from cuts, the Biden administration agreed to do so in part by paring back some portion of the $80 billion it approved last year for an expansion of the IRS.

That $80 billion was included in the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s signature economic bill, to help pay for the climate and health-care spending in the measure. While the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the expansion would increase revenue by $240 billion by allowing the IRS to step up enforcement, conservatives furious with the measure have argued it would unleash tens of thousands of new auditors on Americans. The IRS has said it plans to raise audit rates back to 2011 levels only for wealthy taxpayers.

This is solid evidence of how deeply corrupt the radical right, government and taxes-hating Republican Party has become. The fascists hate government so much that they are willing to protect wealthy tax cheats or default on federal debt. There is nothing democratic or in good will here. This is pure partisan corruption. 

To be crystal clear, corrupt Republican fascists in congress oppose spending $80 billion to get $240 billion in return from criminal tax cheats. Protecting criminals like this is fiscal hypocrisy, insanity and corruption on a gigantic scale.

Also in the WaPo article is this little horror about the proposed debt deal:

Out of the deal: Closing tax loopholes, cutting student debt relief

Negotiators on both sides agreed to drop key demands.

The White House had proposed closing a number of tax loopholes, arguing that any deal to lower the deficit should include increases in federal revenue as well as spending cuts. The GOP ruled those ideas out.

Similarly, House Republicans had fought for repealing some of the clean energy tax credits approved by Democrats last year, as well as stopping the White House’s plan to cancel student loan debt. The Biden administration objected strongly to those proposals, and they fell out of the final deal.

What the Republicans wanted to do was keep tax loopholes for the wealthy open, while opposing energy credits to support doing something about climate change. Clearly, Republican fascists favor deep corruption for elites and special interests. On top of that wonderful ideology, they are also staunchly pro-pollution and anti-climate science want to block efforts to deal with climate change. What an unspeakably morally rotted, fully corrupted political party.

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From the Shocked in Texas Files: Texas House actually voted to impeach Ken Paxton. But even more shockingly, some Texans are slowly waking up to the kind of politics, policy and impacts their radical right politics leads to. The WaPo writes about some worried Texans who are apparently starting to understand the realities their radical right politics:

Chap Ambrose has always been a fan of Elon Musk. He spent $100 to join the waiting list for Tesla’s first pickup in 2019 and bought internet service from Musk’s satellite provider.

But then the billionaire’s companies moved in next door to the computer programmer, who works from his rural, hilltop home.

Two years later, massive construction sites and large white warehouses have taken over the green pastures where cattle used to graze. Semis barrel up and down the narrow country roads. And the companies — rocket manufacturer SpaceX and tunneling company Boring — are seeking state permission to dump treated wastewater into the nearby Colorado River.

“I just have no faith that the leadership there values the environment and these shared resources,” said Ambrose, who leads a group of local residents pushing Musk’s companies to slow down and address concerns about the environmental risks of the development. “I would say, I’m still a fan [of Elon], but I want him to do better here and be a good neighbor.” 

“Between Elon Musk coming in here and all the sand and gravel mines ... suddenly this bucolic, pastoral prime farmland is now more than a thousand acres of an industrial site,” organic farmer Skip Connett said. “There’s no zoning, there are no rules. It’s the Wild West.” 

The growth is “more than this county was ready to handle. This is Texas. This is called property rights,” Bastrop County commissioner Mel Hamner said. “If you own the property and you stay within the state laws, you can pretty much do what you want.”

Yeehaw!! It's the Wild West!! Of course the leadership doesn't care about the environment. They are brass knuckles capitalists. If Chap and his neighbors actually want Elon to do better and be a good neighbor, they are in for serious disappointment. Chap and his neighbors will indeed be disgruntled, polluted-upon chaps.

Chap Ambrose -- worried about being polluted 

out of his nice Wild West home