Bloomberg Businessweek on 'Most Economists'

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/08/bloomberg-businessweek-on-most-economists

Job no. 1 for Clark Hoyt: Figure out who wrote the subheadline on the Bloomberg Businessweek cover story: "Most economists agree there's little choice but to end tax cuts from George W. Bush's era." The article makes no mention of any survey of economists on the point, so it's hard to see how it's accurate.

There are other problems with the article. It says, "What Bush and others failed to see was that the Clinton surplus had been a fluke. Capital-gains tax receipts had grown because of the short-lived dot-com boom. A stalemated government was living within its means: Clinton couldn't get spending programs past the Republican-controlled House and Senate and the GOP couldn't get tax cuts past Clinton."

It's not true that "the GOP couldn't get tax cuts past Clinton." In fact, in 1997 President Clinton signed a law passed by the Republican Congress that cut the top long-term capital gains tax rate to 20% from 28%. That may well have helped cause the dot-com boom.

Capital gains tax revenue peaked at $127 billion in 2000, which is a significant amount. But the difference in capital gains revenue between 2000 and 1996 (before the tax cut and before the dot-com boom), around $70 billion, is not really all that much in the context of the overall federal budget, which was $1.789 trillion in 2000.

Journo-lister Ryan Donmoyer is credited at the end of the Bloomberg article; the main byline is that of Bloomberg Businessweek economics editor Peter Coy.

by Ira Stoll  |  Aug 9, 2010 at 10:38 am Related Topics:  Press, Taxes receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list