Pawlenty wants to quadruple down on Bush's failed tax policies (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
According to
these numbers from the Center for American Progress tax analyst Michael Linden, Tim Pawlenty's big economic idea would represent a quadrupling down on the failed Bush tax cuts. Writes Linden:
Pawlenty called for:
- Cutting the top individual income tax rate down to 25 percent;
- Having just two income tax brackets, 10 percent and 25 percent;
- Eliminating all taxation on capital gains, dividends, and estates;
- Cutting the corporate tax rate down to 15 percent
These proposals, taken together would bestow a massive tax cut on the wealthiest people in the country. They would also reduce overall federal revenues to a such a low level that even if Pawlenty’s draconian, radical spending targets were achieved, deficits and debt would still soar out of control.
All together, Pawlenty’s tax proposal would generate an average revenue level of just 13.6 percent of GDP from 2013-2021. That translates to a tax cut of $7.8 trillion, and that’s on top of $2.5 trillion cost of extending all of the Bush tax cuts (see below for details on how this estimate was calculated).
Those numbers are worth repeating. The Bush tax cuts alone will cost $2.5 trillion. Adding on Pawlenty's proposal would bring the cost to $10.3 trillion, a four-fold increase.
At a time when we need to be investing those dollars in infrastructure, education, and energy, it's mind boggling that Pawlenty would propose such a massive waste of resources, especially when economic history tells us that irresponsible tax cuts do not generate economic growth. It's an utterly insane idea, but clearly that's what Tim Pawlenty thinks he needs to propose in order to win the GOP nomination.