Administration Exploring Looking Beyond 10-Year Budget Window for Tax Plan
May 24 2017 - 12:35PM
Dow Jones News
By Kate Davidson and Richard Rubin
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said Wednesday the
administration is open to extending the 10-year budget scoring
window for its tax plan to get around congressional rules that
forbid bigger deficits after a decade.
That move might help Republicans get their tax and fiscal
policies to comply with congressional budgeting rules that would
otherwise limit them.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) floated the idea last month to
overcome obstacles posed by the process known as reconciliation,
which lets a tax cut pass on a majority Senate vote but prevents
additions to long-run deficits.
Mr. Mulvaney told a House panel that Congress should be able to
extend the window without changing the law. "We are exploring the
possibility of also looking a little further out, especially when
you start to talk about changes in mandatory spending," he told
lawmakers at a House Budget Committee meeting.
The benefits of changes to mandatory spending often don't show
up within the first decade, he said. "I think it's a more
reasonable way to look at the budget window," he said.
Mandatory spending, including programs such as Medicare,
Medicaid and food stamps, aren't subject to annual appropriation. A
longer budget window could let Republicans get fiscal credit for
proposals that are enacted now and then are phased in and don't
take effect for many years in the future.
Mr. Mulvaney also insisted the administration isn't
double-counting the revenue that it is claiming from faster
economic growth. He said the tax plan itself would be
revenue-neutral because the administration would limit tax
breaks.
That represents a significant shift for the administration,
which has repeatedly said that it is backing huge tax cuts and that
growth caused by the tax cuts would offset some of the fiscal cost
of the tax plan. The administration hasn't specific enough limits
on tax breaks to offset its tax rate cuts.
The budget director also defended the administration's decision
to leave Social Security and Medicare largely untouched in a budget
proposal released this week, but said even he was skeptical
officials could balance the budget.
"It's probably the last time," he said. "It would be very
difficult in the future to do that because of the role those
programs do play in our future spending."
The White House spending blueprint released Tuesday imposes deep
cuts to mandatory spending programs such as Medicaid, food stamps,
disability insurance and student loans. The proposal also projects
tax cuts will help generate significant economic growth and enough
revenue to help eliminate the deficit over the next 10 years.
Mr. Mulvaney said this week the budget was designed around
President Donald Trump's campaign-trail promises, including his
commitment to boost spending for the military and his pledge not to
cut Social Security and Medicare.
But deficit hawks have already criticized the plan for refusing
to tackle the two biggest drivers of government spending, Medicare
and Social Security, which are projected to continue growing
rapidly in the years ahead.
"That means in 10 years we are going to have to look at Social
Security, Medicare, again look at Medicaid perhaps, to be
responsible and sustainable again because those three programs are
eating up so much of our budget," Rep. Todd Rokita (R., Ind.)
said.
Rep. Tom Cole (R., Okla.) added, "That math can't be sustained,
and it will crowd out eventually defense and other important
areas."
Mr. Mulvaney acknowledged lawmakers would be "hard-pressed" to
address the country's long-term debt problem without also tackling
mandatory spending programs.
Republican lawmakers praised the administration's efforts to
balance the budget, but also raised concerns about cuts to regional
economic development programs and medical research, and a plan to
overhaul the air-traffic control system.
Mr. Cole said proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health
and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were "penny-wise and
pound-foolish."
"Sometime in the president's term you will have a pandemic," he
said. "Cutting the CDC I think leaves you very vulnerable and the
American people very vulnerable."
He also defended the budget's rosy economic projections, which
assume sustained economic 3% growth starting in 2021, a much faster
pace than the Congressional Budget Office has forecast.
Write to Kate Davidson at kate.davidson@wsj.com and Richard
Rubin at richard.rubin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 24, 2017 12:20 ET (16:20 GMT)
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