Tax Cuts And Economic Growth
Fred Thompson writes in the Wall Street Journal on the connection between lower tax rates and economic growth:
The results of the experiment that began when Congress passed a series of tax-rate cuts in 2001 and 2003 are in. Supporters of those cuts said they would stimulate the economy. Opponents predicted ever-increasing budget deficits and national bankruptcy unless tax rates were increased, especially on the wealthy.
In fact, Treasury statistics show that tax revenues have soared and the budget deficit has been shrinking faster than even the optimists projected. Since the first tax cuts were passed, when I was in the Senate, the budget deficit has been cut in half.
Remarkably, this has happened despite the financial trauma of 9/11 and the cost of the War on Terror. The deficit, compared to the entire economy, is well below the average for the last 35 years and, at this rate, the budget will be in surplus by 2010.
Perhaps the most fascinating thing about this success story is where the increased revenues are coming from. Critics claimed that across-the-board tax cuts were some sort of gift to the rich but, on the contrary, the wealthy are paying a greater percentage of the national bill than ever before.
The richest 1% of Americans now pays 35% of all income taxes. The top 10% pay more taxes than the bottom 60%.
For me, the case for lower taxes isn’t made simply by the fact that cutting taxes helps the economy. The problem I’ve always had with that argument is that it misses the moral dimension of the taxation argument —- when the government takes money out your paycheck it’s taking your money, that you earned. The genius of payroll withholding from the statists’ perspective is that, for the vast majority of Americans, the government is able to take their money without them even realizing its gone.
But that doesn’t make the theft any less real.
More importantly, though, those who advocate tax cuts because they promote economic growth often forget the reason this is true — quite simply, individuals know better how to invest their money than the government ever will.
