costs Archives

Donald Trump’s Tax Plan Would Cost $7 Trillion in Lost Revenue

On Wednesday, Donald Trump released a 1 page tax plan that is geared towards putting more money in the pocket of wealthy people like himself. With the little information and lack of specificity outlined in plan, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget calculated that based on the plan, America would lost a whopping $5 to $7 trillion in lost revenue over a 10 year period.

CRFB estimates the overall cost could go as high as $7 trillion if limits on tax breaks that the plan suggests apply only to high earners. Or the cost could fall to $3 trillion “assuming credits and exclusions are eliminated as well as deductions.”

But what about economic growth? Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has asserted more than once that the tax plan will pay for itself by generating a lot of growth because the proposed changes will spur investment and create jobs.

CRFB doesn’t buy it, noting that even if tax cuts create more growth than it estimates, there’s “no plausible amount” that can offset the lion’s share of the plan’s cost.

The Pentagon – Republicans Are Wasting Millions on Benghazi Investigations

This is your fiscal conservatives doing what they do best – wasting taxpayer’s money.

The Pentagon said Tuesday that its work to comply with the six congressional investigations into the September 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, has cost the military millions of dollars and thousands of man hours.

The Pentagon said in a letter to Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), the top Democrat on the House Armed services Committee, that Defense Department officials have participated in 50 congressional hearings, briefings and interviews about the attack.

“We continue to work fervently to address outstanding items which include a document request from the chairman of the Armed Services Committee (HASC) and six additional interviews of military personnel by HASC and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee staff,” wrote Elizabeth King, assistant secretary for legislative affairs.
Smith requested the estimate from the Pentagon in December. In response, he blasted the Armed Services Committee for continuing to investigate the terrorist attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Smith wrote to House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), calling on him to drop the committee’s investigation.

“We must stop wasting this committee’s and our military’s scarce resources chasing a scandal that does not exist,” Smith wrote in a letter obtained by The Hill.

“More than any other committee in Congress, this committee should understand the financial strain on the Department of Defense, which is being made worse by these ongoing and ridiculous investigations,” Smith said.

It does not appear that McKeon intends to abandon the investigation, however.