Senate Republicans Embrace Plan for $1.5 Trillion Tax Cut<br />WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans, abandoning a key fiscal doctrine, agreed on Tuesday to move forward on a budget<br />that would add to the federal deficit in order to pave the way for a $1.5 trillion tax cut over the next 10 years.<br />“It is extremely disheartening that the Senate budget may be abandoning that commitment.”<br />The tax cuts, she added, “could result in debt as large as the economy in just over a decade and take us into uncharted waters after that.”<br />Michael A. Peterson, president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, said<br />that the national debt topping $20 trillion should not be an invitation for Republicans in Congress to exacerbate a problem that they were elected to fix<br />“Just going from 2 to 3 percent growth adds about $14 trillion of economic activity over a decade, $2 to $3 trillion of revenue<br />to the federal government,” said Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin and a member of the Budget Committee.<br />“The president and members of Congress have spent years warning of our large and growing national debt and have said their goal was to pursue tax reform<br />that doesn’t make that debt worse,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.<br />Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee have been wrestling for weeks over how big a tax cut is feasible and have been under pressure to reach a budget deal this month so<br />that the work on tax legislation can officially begin in October.<br />Republican lawmakers, who for years have complained about the country’s deteriorating fiscal situation, are now turning to arcane budget arguments and making the case<br />that tax cuts will unleash enough economic growth to compensate for lost revenue.
