Jeff Duncan: “there has been so much talk lately about the proposed $245 billion tax cut that some key facts are being overlooked or…”

“there has been so much talk lately about the proposed $245 billion tax cut that some key facts are being overlooked or lost in all the political rhetoric. First, this is not an all-at-once cut. It is spread over 7 years. This comes out to $35 billion per year. This amounts to slightly less than 2 percent of Federal spending over this period. Federal spending has gone up almost 300 percent since 1980. The first Reagan budget was $581 billion. We are at a figure almost triple that now, and will be at more than triple that during this 7-year budget period; in other words, a 300 percent increase in Federal spending in the last 15 years, while inflation during that time has averaged about 3 percent a year, or roughly 45 to 50 percent over that period. Federal spending, in other words, Mr. Speaker, has increased at a rate roughly six times the rate of inflation over this period. Surely it is not asking too much for Federal bureaucrats to give back 2 percent a year when they have had such whopping increases, and an almost 300 percent increase over the last 15 years. Federal taxes now take almost half of the average person's income.”