[Dima2000123]

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If you use a CPI deflator, you still get a persistent increase in tax revenues compared to predicted levels. If you look at the data, it CLEARLY shows this for the Bush tax cuts for capital gains where tax revenue has ballooned.


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Applying CPI deflator is not enough to compare the numbers from two different years. You also have to deflate them for change in GDP. If the tax rate stays the same, then tax receipts grow at the rate of inflation multiplied by GDP growth, which is around 5% or so per year.

I don't think anyone denied that you do get some stimulus from tax cuts. However, there is a world of difference between saying that you get some of the lost tax revenue back through economic stimulus, and saying that you get more revenue back than you lost through tax cut.

The first statement is true, and relatively obvious. The second statement is extraordinary, and requires extraordinary proof beyond just waving hands, and comparing numbers from different years without adjusting them is waving hands. It always drives me to the point of seizure when I listen to such "straight talkers" like McCain repeating that same old "tax cuts pay for themselves" lie.