Senator Grassley:
Higher Deficits are Not Due to Decreased Revenue
by Stuart MacPhail May 2019
The Des Moines Register (Iowa) published an editorial on the federal debt and annual deficit. During March, Chuck Grassley, Iowa’s senior Senator responded with a guest editorial, suggesting that the newspaper’s editorial “misses key context about the cause of the problem and how best to solve it”.
He continued “Let’s start with the myth that the recent Tax Cuts and Jobs Act – which has allowed the average Iowa family of four to see their taxes cut by more than half, or about $2,100 – is somehow the cause of the ballooning federal deficit.”
Grassley noted that “The U.S. Treasury is expected to receive more tax revenue for 2018 than it did in 2017, before the tax law took effect. And in fiscal year 2018, the Treasury took in $3.328 trillion, up from $3.316 trillion in fiscal year 2017. Those are just the facts.”
“Put another way,” he said, “if more money is being taken in by the federal government after it cut taxes yet deficit spending is higher, that must mean the difference is because of increased spending, not decreased revenue.”
“And that’s why I’ve long-supported a federal balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution that would control federal spending and impose fiscal discipline in Washington.” Read Senator Grassley’s guest editorial HERE.
