WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a Senate Budget Committee hearing today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) pressed Congressman Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), President Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Budget and Management (OMB), about the dangers of pushing for wide-spread tax cuts without finding a way to pay for them. Doing so, Senator King said, would only drive up the deficit, force the Treasury to borrow more money, and make future generations of Americans pay it back with interest.‎

“I had a friend – a hardware store clerk – tell me that there’s no such thing as a tax cut when you’re in a deficit situation. Because if you cut taxes and borrow the money to fill the hole, all you’re really doing is shifting those taxes to your kids. And I think that’s an important point,” said Senator King. “So we have to be really careful about this – that we not simply give ourselves a tax cut, and then lay it on our kids who are going to have to eventually pay it with interest.” 

Senator King pushed back against the notion that simply cutting taxes will necessarily and in all cases lead to greater economic growth, and that growth will in turn make up for the lost revenue, saying that available data does not support that assertion:

“There’s this theology out there that lowering taxes equals greater economic growth. I have tried seriously to find economic studies that substantiate that. I haven’t been able to find them,” he continued. “The Bush tax cuts in the middle of the last decade did not have that effect. My understanding of the experiment going on in Kansas is that it has not had that effect. I think we need to be careful with a cavalier assumption that tax cuts will indeed stimulate growth and therefore be self-funding. That’s an idea that kicks around here, but I don’t think there’s much data to support it. And the problem is, if it doesn’t work, you’ve only dug the hole deeper.”

“It is amazing sometimes how much sage advice you can get in rural hardware stores,” said Mulvaney in response.

“Particularly in Maine,” replied Senator King.

As a member of the Senate Budget Committee, Senator King has repeatedly called for a responsible, balanced, and long-term approach to addressing our national debt and deficit.

The Senate Budget Committee today heard testimony from Congressman Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), President Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Budget and Management, which oversees the performance of federal agencies and administers the federal budget.

Video of Senator King’s questions from the hearing today are available HERE.

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