WATCH: At TPC event, CEA chair calls TPC analysis “Ficton”

The Tax Policy Center’s analysis of the GOP’s tax framework has been slammed for its irresponsibility and partisan bent since it was released last week

October 5, 2017

The Tax Policy Center’s analysis of the GOP’s tax framework has been slammed for its irresponsibility and partisan bent since it was released last week.

Today, Chairman of President Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, Kevin Hassett, spoke at an event at the TPC and doubled-down on the criticism of their phony report, calling it “fiction” and “indefensible.”

CEA CHAIRMAN KEVIN HASSETT: I think you’d agree with me that taxes do impact the economy, otherwise neither of your organizations would exist. In other words, taxes matter. They impact the economy. It’s scientifically, I think, indefensible, as the Tax Policy Center report does last Friday, to say that the framework, the tax framework that we’re here to talk about, would have little macroeconomic feedback effect. I think it’s simply inconsistent with mountains of evidence that I’m about to discuss, to have no growth effects from the tax changes this significant. It’s inaccurate, I think it’s fiction.

As for the static analysis released last week, to which I’ll return later, I think it too is based on many fictions. I think that the Tax Foundation behaved responsibly when they decided to wait for the final details to analyze the bill. I’m sure many people in these halls have been struck and perhaps even dismayed by the tone and pushback from around Washington regarding the Tax Policy Center report. I think that’s what happens when you behave irresponsibly. That’s why the Tax Foundation decided, correctly, to wait for the complete plan.