Policymakers excel at separating taxes from spending, as a way to hide the costs of their proposals. When President Trump said he was giving us a “giant tax cut for Christmas,” for example, he neglected to mention that he would also be sending us the bill — in the form of higher future taxes or lower future spending. Likewise, the No New Taxes pledge, popularized by anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist and endorsed by most Republican politicians, does not explain that it ultimately requires no increases in spending, which would not be popular. And it’s not just conservatives trying to obfuscate cause and effect. Staunch liberal advocates of the Green New Deal tout the benefits of new spending and investment in the proposal without offering a realistic way to cover the costs.

Source: Los Angeles Times April 15, 2019 10:18 UTC