GOP claim that tax cuts raise revenues rated ‘False’By Sahil Kapur - RawStory
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 -- 9:36 am
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WASHINGTON –
The Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checker PolitiFact took on the Republican claim that reducing tax rates has always produced higher federal revenues, rating it "false.""Every time we've cut taxes, revenues have gone up, the economy has grown," Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) said Sunday on ABC's This Week, making the case for keeping taxes low as a way of reducing the federal deficit.
"We should first note that on its face, Walsh’s statement is not accurate," PolitiFact declared on Tuesday. "There was a small dip in 1983, after President Ronald Reagan signed off on a tax cut in 1981, though tax revenues increased the next year and all through the 1980s. More significantly, income tax revenues fell in 2001, 2002 and 2003, as President George W. Bush successfully pursued tax cuts."The fact-checking website said that Walsh's central justification -- that the federal government eventually took in higher revenues years after the Bush tax cuts -- was an inappropriate causation, given that revenue increases are typically attributed by economists to economic growth.
"So saying 'revenues have gone up' isn't particularly meaningful in that context," PolitiFact wrote, noting that the Clinton-era tax hikes also led to higher revenues...
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