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Why don't you look at those numbers, and then report back to us? Given that you haven't provided any source for your claim and my previous attempt at validating your claim failed, it only makes sense for you to do the legwork this time around.


It’s a counterfactual question, so of course cannot be answered perfectly (or even well) – supporters of tax cuts claim (without very good evidence) that tax cuts spur growth and thus boost revenue. But for example this analysis suggests ~ $13 trillion of the debt between 2000–2025 can be explained by tax cuts after 2000, mostly during GOP administrations: https://itep.org/federal-tax-cuts-in-the-bush-obama-and-trum...

It’s hard to find any kind of careful analysis about the counterfactual question of cumulative differences in revenue and taxes if Carter-era tax policy had remained in place for the past 40 years. It requires making strong, almost certainly unjustified, assumptions about the rest of federal policy and the trajectory of the economy. But we’re talking about cumulative numbers on the order of 10 trillion dollars, to within say a factor of two.

You also have to decide what to lump in with the same set of policy changes (e.g. successive reductions in IRS enforcement capability, cumulatively leaving $trillions more on the table, changes to labor law and the minimum wage, ...). And there are certainly other large-scale sources of deficits.

Some of the Reagan tax cuts were offset by substantial increases in payroll taxes, shifting the tax burden from the wealthiest onto the working class, and depressing after-tax wages.




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