Top Republican admits tax cuts haven't paid for themselves ... but just wait 8 or 10 years!

Kevin Brady (center) in salesman mode

Republicans sold their big tax law with promises that it would pay for itself. That hasn't come close to happening, with the new law instead adding to the deficit in a big way. Now even Rep. Kevin Brady, the then-chair of the House Ways and Means Committee and a lead author and booster of the law, has to admit that. Sort of. While admitting that it’s “hard to know” how much of the tax cuts (mostly for corporations and the very wealthy) have paid for themselves, Brady also encouraged that people clap harder, and keep clapping for … several election cycles, at least.

“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,” Brady told listeners at the Peterson Foundation’s annual Fiscal Summit.

No, Kevin, it’s not. There is no serious projection that this law will pay for itself, and at this point it’s a major driver of the deficit, which Republicans claim to care so much about when explaining why they don’t want to pay for services that benefit poor or working- or middle-class families. The promises that corporations were supposedly going to use their big tax cuts to hire more people and pay them more haven't panned out. And while the top 1% got an average $33,000 tax cut, households that struggle to make ends meet and would actually have spent their extra money got very little.

Republicans lied to sell this bill. Brady is edging closer to the truth, at least in admitting that it hasn’t paid for itself yet. But he’s still trying to fool voters into thinking that if they just keep clapping (and voting Republican), something great will happen, someday.