Marco Rubio’s tax plan is coming under fire from critics, notably the Wall Street Journal, but Charles Krauthammer says the backlash is unwarranted.
“I supported [the Bowles-Simpson tax plan],” said Krauthammer on Wednesday’s Special Report, “and I think that in the end that is what we’re going to have to have, and I think a president who is serious about tax reform will do exactly that: try to aim for a revenue neutral tax reform. You could always add on a bit of revenue in the end, but you want to aim for revenue neutrality which was in the commission report, which Obama never touched.”
But, said Krauthammer, Rubio’s “proposing something different here. He’s proposing tax cuts. And I think this argument with him and the Wall Street Journal over what is essentially 2 percent of the rate, I think it’s slightly overexaggerated.”
“It’s not going to make any difference in the real world if there’s a 1 or 2 percent lower rate,” said Krauthammer, “and I think what [Rubio’s] doing, obviously, is [trying] to win votes with the sweetener of the child tax credit. There’s nothing particularly wrong with that. . . . The theme here is that you’re lowering the rates, particularly on the corporate side. You’re lowering the tax on investment and return — capital gains — which is what everybody on the right has always said is the engine to drive growth.
“So you’ve got very serious pro-growth elements and you’ve got a sweetener with a child tax credit,” Krauthammer summarized. “That that’s a rejection of Reaganism I find slightly over-the-top.”
Comments