(Host) (Host) President Bush’s tax cuts have become a key issue in this year’s U.S. Senate race.
Independent candidate Bernie Sanders says the cuts have dramatically reduced federal tax revenues – a situation he says has led to enormous budget deficits.
However, Republican candidate Rich Tarrant says the tax cuts are bringing more money into the federal Treasury.
According to new information, both candidates are right.
VPR’s Bob Kinzel reports:
(Kinzel) It’s an issue that has been raised many times during the course of this year’s U.S. Senate campaign. Have the Bush tax cuts been beneficial to the United States economy?
Rich Tarrant says the answer is definitely yes because federal tax revenues have grown in each of the last two years:
(Tarrant) “The numbers are in. It’s easy for politicians to talk about Bush tax cuts and millionaires and billionaires getting hundreds of millions of dollars cut. But the fact of the matter is the tax collections are in real dollars. You can count them. And the fact of the matter is that over the last two full years since the tax rate cuts, we collected $521 billion more than we expected.”
(Kinzel) Bernie Sanders voted against the tax cuts as a member of Congress because they lowered rates across all income levels. He says wealthy people got the biggest breaks.
(Sanders) “What Mr. Tarrant is saying is that in the last couple of years, tax revenues have increased. That is true. What he has forgotten to tell you is in the previous 4 years with Bush’s tax cuts, tax revenue was extremely low. What he is also forgetting to tell you is that under Clinton, who did not give huge tax breaks to the rich, we raised more tax revenue.”
(Kinzel) According to information from the Office of Management and Budget, both candidates are making accurate statements.
In the three years following the implementation of the cuts, tax revenue fell by almost 18%. Since 2004, revenues have grown by nearly 12%. But that’s still $10 billion lower than pre-tax cut levels.
Tarrant is convinced that cutting the capital gains tax is generating a lot of positive economic activity.
(Tarrant) “You have to understand how capital gains works if the capital gains tax is high nobody sells their capital assets so the tax is zero.”
(Kinzel) Sanders says it’s clear that this “trickle down” theory of economics simply doesn’t work.
(Sanders “And that is that if you give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires somehow all good things happen – that trickle down economics does in fact make the rich richer. It is very good for the wealthy, but it is not good in terms of trying not have deficits. And it is not good for the middle class.”
(Kinzel) While Tarrant supports legislation to make these tax cuts permanent, Sanders wants to repeal them for anyone making more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars a year.
For Vermont Public Radio I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier
Independent candidate Bernie Sanders says the cuts have dramatically reduced federal tax revenues – a situation he says has led to enormous budget deficits.
However, Republican candidate Rich Tarrant says the tax cuts are bringing more money into the federal Treasury.
According to new information, both candidates are right.
VPR’s Bob Kinzel reports:
(Kinzel) It’s an issue that has been raised many times during the course of this year’s U.S. Senate campaign. Have the Bush tax cuts been beneficial to the United States economy?
Rich Tarrant says the answer is definitely yes because federal tax revenues have grown in each of the last two years:
(Tarrant) “The numbers are in. It’s easy for politicians to talk about Bush tax cuts and millionaires and billionaires getting hundreds of millions of dollars cut. But the fact of the matter is the tax collections are in real dollars. You can count them. And the fact of the matter is that over the last two full years since the tax rate cuts, we collected $521 billion more than we expected.”
(Kinzel) Bernie Sanders voted against the tax cuts as a member of Congress because they lowered rates across all income levels. He says wealthy people got the biggest breaks.
(Sanders) “What Mr. Tarrant is saying is that in the last couple of years, tax revenues have increased. That is true. What he has forgotten to tell you is in the previous 4 years with Bush’s tax cuts, tax revenue was extremely low. What he is also forgetting to tell you is that under Clinton, who did not give huge tax breaks to the rich, we raised more tax revenue.”
(Kinzel) According to information from the Office of Management and Budget, both candidates are making accurate statements.
In the three years following the implementation of the cuts, tax revenue fell by almost 18%. Since 2004, revenues have grown by nearly 12%. But that’s still $10 billion lower than pre-tax cut levels.
Tarrant is convinced that cutting the capital gains tax is generating a lot of positive economic activity.
(Tarrant) “You have to understand how capital gains works if the capital gains tax is high nobody sells their capital assets so the tax is zero.”
(Kinzel) Sanders says it’s clear that this “trickle down” theory of economics simply doesn’t work.
(Sanders) “And that is that if you give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires somehow all good things happen – that trickle down economics does in fact make the rich richer. It is very good for the wealthy, but it is not good in terms of trying not have deficits. And it is not good for the middle class.”
(Kinzel) While Tarrant supports legislation to make these tax cuts permanent, Sanders wants to repeal them for anyone making more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars a year.
For Vermont Public Radio I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier