The Future of Individual Tax Rates: Effects of Economic Growth and Distribution : Leonard Burman's Testimony before the Senate Committee on Finance

The Future of Individual Tax Rates: Effects of Economic Growth and DistributionLeonard E. Burman

The text below is an excerpt from the complete testimony. Read the full written testimony in PDF format.

Leonard Burman's testimony before the Senate Committee on Finance on whether and how to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts.

Chairman Baucus, Ranking Member Grassley, Members of the Committee: Thank you for inviting me to share my views on whether and how to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. I am speaking for myself alone. My views should not be attributed to any of the organizations with which I am affiliated.

The expiration of the "Bush tax cuts" at the end of 2010 creates a number of decision points for the Congress: Should all or some of the tax cuts be extended? If so, should they be made permanent? If not, how long should they be extended for? And, if only some of the tax cuts are to be extended, which ones?

In short, I believe it would be a serious mistake to make any of the tax cuts permanent now. The income tax is a mess and is badly in need of an overhaul. It doesn't raise close to enough revenue to pay for current governmental expenditures and is needlessly complex, unfair, and inefficient. A system-wide reform along the lines of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, but with the goal of eventually raising enough revenue get the national debt out of the red zone should be a top priority for the Congress. Permanent extension of the tax cuts would make such a reform far more difficult and would signal to markets that our budget problems are only going to get worse.

However, I also think it would be a mistake to allow all of the tax cuts to expire as scheduled in 2011. The economy is in a very precarious state and a major tax increase would slow the economic recovery. With credit still in very short supply, low- and middle-income households are facing serious cash flow constraints. A tax increase would result in less spending, which would ripple through the economy, costing jobs and threatening the nascent recovery.

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