Trump's treasury secretary has a deal for America—the same one Sam Brownback sold to Kansas

Rss@dailykos.com (mark Sumner) · Friday, April 21, 2017, 8:49 pm

Stephen Mnuchin wants you to trust him. He wants you to trust him for $6 trillion dollars.

The Tax Policy Center, working with the University of Pennsylvania, estimated that Trump’s proposed tax cuts would reduce revenue by $6.2 trillion over 10 years. The researchers said Trump's proposed plan would initially lead to more economic growth but the resulting growth in government debt — driven by falling revenue levels - would eventually hurt economic growth.

But Mnuchin says there’s no reason to worry about the giant hole this unpresidented gift to the 0.01 percent would blast in the budget.

“The plan will pay for itself with growth,” Mnuchin said at an event hosted by the Institute of International Finance.

Republicans have been selling the “tax cuts generate greater revenue” scheme since at least the dawn of Reagan. The problem is that it’s not true. It wasn’t true then, it’s not been true at any point in between, it’s not true now. This is a tested and disproven piece of economic whackdoodlery that even pre-Reagan Republicans recognized as “voodoo.” But over the last four decades it’s not just become a part of their economic policy, it’s become their economic policy.

In the case of the Trump tax plan, even the most conservative economic organizations—people who live their lives pretending the Laffer Curve has value—can’t find a way to make Mnuchin’s numbers work.

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