Tuesday, January 6, 2015

How They'll Game The System



Republicans have announced their intention to replace the head of the CBO with someone who'll play their game of deception. This article explains their con game, and the consequences:

... To make these models work, scorekeepers must arbitrarily assume either that we tax more and spend less today than is really the case — which is what they did for the Camp bill — or assume that a tax cut today will be followed by a spending cut or tax increase tomorrow. Economists describe such a move as “making counterfactual assumptions”; the rest of us call it “making stuff up.”
...
Further, the models are not a step toward more neutral revenue estimates, because they assume that, while individuals make productive investments, government does not. In reality, government spending contributes significantly to economic output. Truly dynamic modeling would weigh the forgone economic returns of government investments against the economic gains from lower taxes.
The Republicans’ interest in dynamic scoring ... comes from political factions convinced that tax cuts are the panacea for all economic ills. They will use dynamic scoring to justify a tax cut that, under conventional scorekeeping, loses revenue.
When revenues do in fact decline and deficits rise, those same proponents will push for steep cuts in government insurance or investment programs, because they will claim that the models demand it. That is what lies inside the Trojan horse of dynamic scoring.
[Image source]

2 comments:

  1. I found this in my box. Being a Marine it caught my eye. This dude is reading my mind. Here is this persons version of the same thing I was ranting about the other day. The stupid and ignorant and how they got to be that way. mind you, these were smart people, they are no longer smart people.


    "Obama To Disband the Marine Corps"

    Here's a teaser for Sid...That's right brother...Obama is coming after your Christmas cookies!

    "Fox News just reported that Obama is going to ban doughnuts!"

    "And not just doughnuts. Watch the report. Obama's jack-booted FDA is coming after (and they list these) popcorn, Christmas cookies (ohhh he hates Christmas!), crackers, frozen pizza, and canned frosting. Fox News host Clayton Morris actually said they would be prohibited!"


    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/01/1355083/-Obama-To-Disband-the-Marine-Corps?detail=email

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'll reserve choosing sides until Liz "The Hassle" Beck weighs in.

    Yesss...Liz is that other Becks illegitimate daughter. I read that in a blog this morning. OK, so it was my blog. That doesn't make it any less true!

    ReplyDelete

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