Abstract: On January 1, 2013, the Bush tax cuts will expire and other new taxes that congressional leaders have recognized would damage the economy will take effect. President Barack Obama’s proposal to increase taxes on only “high-income earners” would also be economically destructive, reducing economic output by an average of $196 billion per year over 2013–2022 relative to current tax policy. Congress and the President would better serve the country by reforming the tax code in a pro-growth, revenue-neutral way and by reducing federal spending.
The new White House proposal to impose a Medicare tax on investment income would reduce demand for investment, which is the last thing that the economy needs right now.
The results in this paper are based on the specific tax policy proposals of Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain. The economy improves under each plan as compared to the CBO baselinethat assumes that all of the Bush tax cuts disappear. While bothcandidates plan to reduce taxes compared to this scenario and eachachieves his stated goal, their approaches are quite different.
The "American Option," introduced by Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC),avoids the discredited Keynesian consumption-based stimulus andinstead follows the tried and true method of cutting taxes onbusinesses.