As the former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Joint Committee on Taxation, GOP congressman Kevin Brady (R-TX) was primarily responsible for writing and initially advancing the GOP's tax cuts for corporations and the rich.
Like every other Republican, Representative Brady said the tax cut would pay for itself, but now that he no longer has the power to pass tax cuts he's singing a different tune.
Brady now says we won't know if the tax cut paid for itself for another decade.
Pressed about what portion of the tax cuts were fully paid for, Brady said it was “hard to know."
“We will know in year 8, 9 or 10 what revenues it brought in to the government over time. So it’s way too early to tell,” said Brady at the Peterson Foundation’s annual Fiscal Summit in Washington D.C. [...]
Brady said it was important to consider whether the tax cuts were a good investment. He argued there are “very encouraging” signs that the economy is performing better after the tax cuts with strong job growth, improved wage growth and higher business investment.
I think we can say with all confidence in the world that the nation's fiscal health will be in an fairly dilapidated state in "year 8, 9, or 10" and that's even if a Democrat becomes the next president in 2020 and manages to roll back some portion of the GOP's tax cuts.
The stimulative effect of the GOP's tax cuts -- the part that was suppose to increase revenue -- has already begun to fade and within a year or two, if not sooner, it may not even register in economic reports. But the cost to taxpayers, meanwhile, isn't going anywhere; it's literally permanent.
The GOP's tax cuts for corporations and wealthy shareholders will add at least $1.5 trillion to the deficit and that's just the beginning. Meager tax cuts intended for average Americans will automatically cease in the coming years, but Republicans made the tax cuts for corporations -- tax cuts which make up the overwhelming majority of the whole package -- permanent.