Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you for calling this important hearing on dynamic scoring. This is an issue that both sides have been jousting over seemingly for the last 15 to 20 years. It is my hope that we can have an open and honest dialogue about dynamic scoring today. The witnesses that the committee has put before us are distinguished, and are some of the best and brightest minds in their respective fields.
With the panel assembled today, we can finally put to bed a few widespread and seemingly widely held myths. In my opinion, one of the most dangerous myths is the notion that tax cuts pay for themselves. As Congressional observers can verify, the notion that tax cuts can pay for themselves was the rallying cry for the deficit financed tax cuts from the previous decade. Tax cuts that failed to produce the job gains and economic growth we were promised in the run-up to their passage.
From my perspective, to date the conversation surrounding dynamic scoring has been a tad intellectually dishonest. During the last two decades, dynamic scoring has been a way to push tax cuts whether deficit financed or not. Do some tax cuts generate economic growth? Yes, but to apply the assessment that all tax cuts pay for themselves, reduce the deficit and or grow the economy is economic folly.
I am not categorically opposed to dynamic scoring. I believe that Congress, the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Congressional Budget Office should have the best ideas on how certain policies will influence the overall economy, but not to miss the point that for the last two decades “dynamic scoring" has been a euphemism for enacting large tax cuts. The point that is often overlooked when dynamic scoring comes up is that there are two sides to the ledger. If we are to consider the positive effects that tax cuts may or may not have on the economy, equally, we should consider the positive effects that government spending policies and investments initiatives have on the economy as well.
Anytime that we are to consider changing how CBO and JCT keep score, we must do so mindful that these changes have lasting impacts, and in doing so, we may be undermining one of the few remaining nonpartisan and well-informed commentators on the nation’s economic health. I understand the short-term political gains for pushing tax cuts, but again I caution against pursuing this track.
Let me conclude by thanking the Chairman for calling today’s hearing and I look forward to the discussion.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman
