Last night Chris Hayes ended "All In" with a discussion of the GOP Tax Plan. Economists David Cay Johnston and Stephanie Kelton agreed that if Republicans get their long-awaited wish and this budget-busting tax plan is enacted, the huge deficits it will create might not lead to the promised "growth" Steve Mnuchin insists will result.
What happens if Steve Mnuchin is wrong? Austerity budgets that cut into the heart of the biggest programs paid for out of the federal budget: Social Security and Medicare.
CHRIS HAYES: They are pushing this through before they can model out what the effects are. [Hayes reads this tweet.]
They are trying to get this voted on before the joint committee issues the report about what it thinks will happen.
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: This fits a larger pattern. This is a bill crafted by Republicans with the lobbyists they let into their offices. No Democrats were involved in this whatsoever. There were no public hearings before it was written and the minimal public hearings we've seen were for show. This is not the way we should be doing businesses. Taxes are the first power we grant our Congress because taxes are central to our democracy.
CHRIS HAYES (To Stephanie Kelton): You sort of lived through some intense austerity years. There was this push to impose austerity, the sequester, the budget control act, and a lot of people worry should this happen on this side, right? Like okay, you get tax cuts, that's the next move. As someone that worked on that committee, is that what you see happening?
STEPHANIE KELTON: It's the likely outcome. You see the likelihood of these tax cuts not doing what Republicans promised they will do, which is ultimately create so much prosperity, there is so much revenue, they essentially pay for themselves. Happen because the tax cuts are so heavily skewed to the people that are less likely to spend the windfall, the economy isn't going to improve. The deficits will be there, and Republicans will say we got to do something to deal with deficits.
HAYES: As soon as you get a recession, oh, no, the debt crisis is back.
KELTON: They won't say we got to reverse the tax cuts. What do we have to do? We have to cut spending to deal with the deficits. Here likely, I think, to see that scenario play out where Republicans go after things like entitlements and other public programs that help primarily middle class and poor Americans.
HAYES: And Mick Mulvaney has sort of been signaling that and Paul Ryan has been signaling that as well.
Well, duh. It's like the Bush Tax Cuts never destroyed the economy for Main Street. Bend over here it comes again....
