Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said Sunday he predicts "some really stinky stuff" will be found in tax bill the Senate passed overnight Friday into Saturday.
"We're going to find some really stinky stuff in here that we didn't know," said King of the legislation, adding "anything good that happens in America in the next year, including good weather at the Super Bowl, is going to be attributed to this bill."
"This is the bill that we got at about 6:00 at night that we were going to vote on that night," he said of the 477-page document.
"There were no hearings. There were some general hearings about tax reform. There were zero hearings on the bill. And even the bill that was reported out by the Finance Committee was different than what we were handed that we had to vote on a few hours later," King said.
King said that he managed to read the bill all the way through on the floor of the Senate Friday night, but that he "can't say" he "understood all of it."
"There's a lot of stuff in here that I don't think, that I don't think anybody knows what it's all about. I just happened to pick up, I marked in the margin on page 409, 'domestic oil and gas extraction income.' What's that all about? There's a later provision about income on oil and gas from foreign countries. What's that all about?" he said.
"The point is nobody knew what was going on here," he added. "And there was a moment when we could have fixed it. Chuck Schumer moved to recess Friday night about 9:00 until Monday. Give people a chance to go through this and dig through it. Party line vote, denied, we end up voting at 3:00 AM."
Asked what tax payers can expect now as the bill now moves to conference where both the House and Senate are expected to work out any differences between their legislation, King said he gives it a 50-50 chance of not getting to conference.
"I think there's a chance. Because I don't think that either side, either the House or Senate, wants to bring this back to the floor, the House just may take the Senate bill and send it to the president," said King.
King said the vote "may be the most important vote any of us take in our career."
"We've now made a 30-year decision," said King. "This isn't the reauthorization of the FAA, or even the Farm Bill. This is something that's going to affect every American, every business, the whole economy -- for decades."
Tax Cuts Don't Lead to Economic Growth, a New 65-Year Study Finds
"REPUBLICANS WILL CUT SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE AFTER TAX PLAN PASSES, SAYS MARCO RUBIO"
Derek Thompson Sep 16, 2012
Here's a brief economic history of the last quarter-century in taxes and growth.
In 1990, President George H. W. Bush raised taxes, and GDP growth increased over the next five years. In 1993, President Bill Clinton raised the top marginal tax rate, and GDP growth increased over the next five years. In 2001 and 2003, President Bush cut taxes, and we faced a disappointing expansion followed by a Great Recession.
Does this story prove that raising taxes helps GDP? No. Does it prove that cutting taxes hurts GDP? No.
But it does suggest that there is a lot more to an economy than taxes, and that slashing taxes is not a guaranteed way to accelerate economic growth.
That was the conclusion from David Leonhardt's new column today for The New York Times, and it was precisely the finding of a new study from the Congressional Research Service, "Taxes and the Economy: An Economic Analysis of the Top Tax Rates Since 1945 .. https://tinyurl.com/b7ecsmf ."
Company tax cuts: Report shows lack of evidence of ‘Growth Dividend’
International and Australian data on tax rates and macroeconomic indicators provides no evidence of link between corporate tax cuts and a ‘growth dividend’.
Despite widespread acceptance of the argument that cutting the corporate tax rate will boost economic growth, the economic evidence is not there according to a new report from David Richardson, Senior Research Fellow at The Australia Institute.
--- Download full report below ---
The report analyses data from Australia and OECD countries and finds no support for claims that reduced company tax leads to improved economic performance. Specifically it shows that:
* There is no correlation between corporate tax rates and economic growth in OECD countries.
* Countries with lower company tax rates have lower standards of living, measured as purchasing power of GDP per capita.
“Claims are often made that uncompetitive rates of corporate and individual income tax are a recipe for lower economic growth and lower incomes, but these claims rely on assertions, rather than data and analysis,” Ben Oquist, Executive Director of The Australia Institute, said.
“The economic case for company tax cuts is weak, and furthermore, it is obvious that many companies are involved in widespread tax avoidance and the federal budget has a revenue problem. It is simply not the time for tax cuts.”
The report also reviewed the claim that corporate tax cuts will lead to higher wages, more jobs and more foreign investment.
Australia’s historical data shows:
* Wages and mixed income has declined as a share of GDP as corporate taxes have been lowered.
* Average unemployment rates have risen as company tax rates have lowered.
* Growth in foreign investment as a share of GDP was strongest when Australia’s company taxes were highest.
Polling conducted in blue-ribbon Coalition seats of New England, Dickson and Page revealed more support for an increase than a cut to the company tax rate – while the majority of respondents said it should stay the same.
“There is very low public support for cutting the company tax rate, and this new research shows that voters are right to be sceptical about claims that cuts will trickle-down into tangible benefits for the wider economy,” Mr Oquist said.
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