On the recordJune 27, 2013
Now that we have a blank slate, we are asking all Senators; that is, all Senators, Senators on the committee, Senators off the committee--to submit detailed legislative proposals; that is tax expenditures, the credits, the deductions, exclusions, which they think should be added back that meet the test for growth and for jobs, as well as any other provisions Senators might have in mind that they think should be added or repealed, that they think make sense or other reforms they think make sense. In order to help guide our colleagues' submissions, we have released some rough estimates the Joint Committee on Taxation and our staffs have been working on. These estimates show how much the rates would rise, for example, if we add back tax expenditures and keep the current level of progressivity compared to a blank slate. We put this out today. Why? Because we wanted everybody to know there is a tradeoff involved; that is, when you keep tax expenditures, there is going to be an increase in rates, certainly compared with what otherwise we start with. The more tax expenditures there are, the less revenue there is for a rate reduction and deficit reduction, and the more complicated our Tax Code will end up being.
