CTJ: For Some in Congress, Priorities Lie With the Rich

According to a new report released today by Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush, which provide benefits mostly to the rich, will cost the country $2.5 trillion over the decade after they were first enacted (2001-2010). A number of lawmakers who voted for the Bush tax cuts have recently been arguing against health care reform legislation aimed at helping all Americans, claiming reforms are "too costly." How can this be?

In its report, CTJ points out that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has recently projected health care reform legislation to cost $1 trillion over the decade after it is first enacted (2010-2019). With the Bush tax cuts costing two and a half times as much as proposed deficit-neutral health care reform legislation, and providing nowhere near the benefit of the later, it is obvious "that health care reform," to some lawmakers, "is not a matter of costs, but a matter of priorities."

Image by Flickr user johnsolid used under a Creative Commons license.

(Gary Therkildsen 09/08/09)

Comments

by Anonymous (not verified) on 09/09/09

A tax cut is where the people

A tax cut is where the people who earned it get to keep it. The cost is in less revenue to the goverment. The proposed healthcare bill is additional cost to the goverment, or us, the tax payer.

by Adam Hughes (not verified) on 09/10/09

In public policy terms, the

In public policy terms, the cost of a tax cut and the cost of a new program are one and the same. One dollar is tax cuts has the same impact on the deficit as one dollar of new program funding.

In addition, your perspective on these issues should actually lead you to support the health care proposal and not the Bush tax cuts. Those tax cuts were passed in such a way so as to add an additional cost to taxpayers. Namely, the tax cuts were completely deficit financed, which means you and me, or more likely our children and grandchildren will be paying for those tax cuts. For the vast majority of Americans, these policies will end up costing us much more in future interest on the debt that we received in the tax cut.

The health care proposal now are being developed as deficit-neutral, meaning there will not be additional costs down the line. I would also say that the cost to the government of a new health care program is not for nothing. It will deliver new services and benefits to some if not all Americans.