Sunday, December 27, 2015

The new Federal budget

From Robert Reich

The end-of-year deal Paul Ryan unveiled last night – which is billed as a “spending” bill – is it’s really a $650 billion tax-cut. Republicans like it because corporations get a big chunk (a permanent tax credit for research and development and extra deductions on investments in equipment) and Democrats like it because it expands two big tax subsidies for the working poor – the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit.

What’s important for you to know is that it (1) increases the deficit, perhaps marking the end of a period of austerity hysterics when deficit reduction was the major goal of Republicans, and (2) shifts government toward more social engineering through tax cuts, which makes the IRS into the government’s major agency for promoting economic growth (through selective corporate tax cuts) and reducing poverty (through tax subsidies to the poor).

None of this is necessarily bad, but it’s all hidden from public view. Today's predictable political posturing and spinning about the deal won't mention what's really going on.

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