Chuck Grassley: “I would like to address a proposal by the Democrat leadership to repeal the future individual income tax reductions…”

“I would like to address a proposal by the Democrat leadership to repeal the future individual income tax reductions enacted in last year's historic tax cut bill. At this time last year, the CBO reported that, as a percentage of GDP, Federal taxes took 20.6 percent of GDP, a record post World War II level. Individual income taxes were at even more dramatic levels. CBO reported individual income taxes were at 10.2 percent of GDP. Even after last year's tax cut is fully in effect, however, the CBO estimates that Federal taxes will still take between 19.2 percent and 19.9 percent of GDP over the next 10 years. That is still way above historically average levels of Federal taxation. Just look at the chart behind me. This chart shows total Federal tax receipts as a percentage of gross domestic product over that past 40 years, and it projects tax receipts over the next 10 years as a result of last year's tax cut. As you can see, even after last year's tax cut, the level of taxation remains at historically high levels of GDP.”