The Senate Budget Plan Could Dramatically Worsen our Fiscal Situation

For Immediate Release

The Senate this week is scheduled to debate and vote on the Fiscal Year 2018 budget, which would allow $1.5 trillion in tax cuts to be added to the national debt through the reconciliation process. The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

While the House passed a fiscally responsible budget that calls for mandatory savings and deficit-neutral tax reform, the Senate is considering a plan that could dramatically worsen our fiscal situation.

We hope Senators work to improve this budget through the amendment process and bring it more in alignment with the House version.

We also strongly object to the exemption of tax reform from PAYGO rules requiring legislation be offset and not add to deficit and urge support for the Warner amendment, which strikes this exemption. PAYGO rules, which should apply to both sides of the budget, would require tax cuts to be offset by closing loopholes or other revenue or spending cuts, and it is a common sense principle that with debt at record highs and growing we can’t dig the hole deeper.

Tax cuts do not pay for themselves. There is no free lunch – gimmicks and new debt will not unlock economic growth; they will stifle it.

If Congress wants to pass tax cuts, it should either reduce spending or raise other revenues to offset the cost instead of voting to send a massive tax bill to our children.

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For more information contact Patrick Newton, Press Secretary, at newton@crfb.org.