ICYMI: Tenney Earns Four Pinocchios For Lying About Tax Scam
“Congresswoman Tenney deserves every one of the four Pinocchios she received for lying about the Tax Scam exploding our deficit,” said DCCC Spokesman Evan Lukaske. “The truth is that Tenney voted for a bill that blew a $1.9 trillion hole in the deficit and threatens the future of Medicare and Social Security. Tenney’s lies do nothing but expose how truly damaging this vote is to her campaign.”
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Rep. Claudia Tenney’s claim that Trump’s tax cuts already paid for themselves | Washington Post
By Salvador Rizzo
July 16, 2018
“We have already paid for the tax cuts with the growth in the economy, which is not being talked about. The tax cuts have already been paid for in six months.”
— Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), in a radio interview with WUTQ-FM, July 11, 2018
Not even President Trump claims the $1.5 trillion tax cut he signed has already paid for itself.
Tenney, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, said in a radio interview, “Already the so-called deficit with the tax cuts — which you’re never going to see the left wing or the left-wing media talk about — we’ve already eclipsed that.”
The gross national product, she said, had grown more than $1.5 trillion since Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act at the end of 2017. “So when we’re concerned about a deficit being created or a debt being created — the economy has already grown an excess of $1.5 trillion,” she said.
But that’s not how it works. Tenney is mixing up economic growth and tax revenue. Let’s dig in.
The Facts
Trump’s tax cuts are estimated to cost $1.5 trillion over 10 years. The Congressional Budget Office expects they will spur net economic growth at the same time that they ramp up the federal debt.
[…] Even after accounting for that growth, the deficit in the federal budget would increase by $1.9 trillion over the same 10-year period, CBO estimated. In a nutshell: While Trump’s tax cuts would generate net economic activity, the government would not reap as much revenue as it did under the previous, higher tax rates, the CBO analysis found.
[…] Only a fraction of the total $1.5 trillion in economic gains Tenney mentioned would be taxable, so it’s inaccurate to say the cost of the tax cut has been offset already. Tenney’s interviewers at WUTQ-FM quickly jumped on her claim and pressed her to explain. In the end, she shifted somewhat, from saying the tax cuts had paid for themselves in six months to saying “in the end, the tax cuts are going to pay for themselves.”
[…] The Pinocchio Test
Tenney said Trump’s tax cuts had paid for themselves in six months and wondered why no one was covering this story. Maybe because it’s totally wrong.
The congresswoman seems to have gotten her wires crossed, confusing total economic growth with tax revenue collections. Her revised claim that Trump’s tax cuts are on a 10-year path to pay for themselves is also extremely dicey, so we award Four Pinocchios.
