According to press reports, lawmakers are considering a year-end tax package that would combine a temporary expansion of the Child Tax Credit with the temporary restoration or extension of several business tax breaks. One proposal would apparently cost nearly $100 billion to keep these provisions in place through 2025. Making such a package permanent could cost over $800 billion through 2033.
The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:
With interest costs surging and debt approaching record levels, is Congress really discussing more tax cuts? Can politicians really just not help themselves?
It feels like every time we take one step forward, someone tries to pull us two steps backward.
Certainly, there’s a case for improving the tax code to better support business investment and children in need. But we shouldn’t just add the cost to the nation’s credit card. That extra borrowing will crowd out investment and further burden our children with debt and slower growth.
Rather than adding to the cost of possible extensions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, policymakers should be working to rein in those costs and ensure any extension is at least budget neutral.
Now is not the time to be expanding our budget deficits. Like a toddler picking at a scab, lawmakers can’t seem to stop making things worse, but the country will pay a large price if they can’t soon get control of themselves.
###
Build Your Own Tax Extensions here
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
And some folks want to expand Medicare and Medicaid and all we read is how poorly our spending and our willingness to pay for it is. More you give these folks the more they will spend. Any new spending either through credits or cuts should be offset but not some projected offset 10-years down the road.
LikeLike
Medicare could easily be expanded to all citizens without significant, if any additional cost. It would be paid for by employers and workers by way of a combination of payroll taxes, premiums and out-of-pocket costs. Not much different than is the case today, but more fairly distributed. That does not including all the new benefits proposed by the likes of Sanders, but that extra spending could be paid for the same way. The key is not to pay for it through general revenue, but dedicated revenue.
LikeLike
You are starting to sounded like our elected officials. How will Medicare be be able to handle increasing their coverage from 66 million to over 330 million – 400% increase? You think it is hard now to get hold of Medicare now?! Costs will be higher to hire more support on an on going basis – bigger government.
LikeLike
Gradually over several years. There is no change in health care or the providers. We are talking insurance payments not providing health care. Medicare uses hundreds of insurers now to pay claims, it would be an expansion and those systems are in place in the private sector.
LikeLike
I know I keep asking the same question: who is gonna’ pay for all this ?
LikeLike
According to gov track, there are 11265 bills and resolutions before the house and senate now . Many deal with credits and taxation outside the tax cuts and jobs act also being discussed. Most won’t see the light of day. I find it is disingenuous that the CFRB calls tax credits costs instead of just plain credits. There is no entitlement to all our money except that which is agreed to by the legislature. That said, the budget going forward must be do away with these massive deficits.
LikeLike