Ryan-McConnell Tax Cuts for the Richest Plan (*Magic Wand Not Included)

As Speaker Ryan and Senate Majority Leader McConnell rollout their grossly irresponsible plan to give the wealthiest few massive tax cuts – we thought we'd remind everyone that experts of all political stripes agree tax cuts don't pay for themselves.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and former director of the Congressional Budget Office (2003-2005, under President Bush)

"I'm a very conservative economist. I would love it if tax cuts paid for themselves, but I'm also someone who looks at the numbers. And there's just no evidence that the tax cuts actually pay for themselves…It's just unlikely that you can move an economy that is approaching $20 trillion in size so much, so fast with a tax cut, that it will turn around and generate even more revenue." [5/9/2017]

David Stockman, former OMB director (1981-1985, under President Reagan) and former GOP Representative from Michigan (1977-1981)

"It's the same story they told back in 1980s when I was there and I never believed it… [tax cuts would produce] some additional economic growth…[but] most of the revenue loss has to be paid for with spending cuts. You have to earn it. You can't, you know, wave a magic wand." [5/15/2017]

David Brockway, former Chief of Staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (1983-1987)

"Without massive budget gimmicks, there's no way they can do what they want to do." [9/22/2017]

David Wessel, senior fellow at Brookings Institution and former economics editor at the Wall Street Journal

"If you change the rules in ways that allow you to make the debt grow larger, it's a bad thing…All that's doing is putting on blinders and pretending tax cuts will pay for themselves." [9/22/2017]

Edward Kleinbard, fellow at The Century Foundation and professor at University of Southern California Gould School of Law

"There is no time in modern history where tax cuts could be said to pay for themselves." [4/28/2017]

Alan Auerbach, director of the Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance at University of California Berkeley

"I am not aware of any credible evidence (in the U.S.) over the last several decades of a broad-based tax cut paying for itself…I don't think this is at all controversial among actual economists." [4/28/2017]

Jared Bernstein, senior fellow at Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and former Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Biden

"Our fiscal history on this point is clear: Cutting taxes loses revenues, which, unless offset by higher taxes elsewhere or spending cuts, increases the budget deficit, which in turn raises the debt." [9/26/2017]

The American people want tax reform for hard-working middle class families, and not one penny more in deficit-exploding tax breaks for the wealthiest one percent.