Taxes

Ryan: “Nobody Knows” if We’ve Been Lying All Along

Written by SK Ashby

The GOP tax cut bill will pay for itself, right?

We know it won't, but Speaker Paul Ryan apparently isn't sure either. Ryan appeared on CNN this morning where he said "nobody knows" if it will pay for itself.

“Are you saying that the growth you’re going to get from this tax cut will equal the amount it would cost on the deficit side, so that it’s a wash?” Savannah Guthrie asked Ryan in an interview Wednesday.

Nobody knows the answer to that question, because that’s in the future,” Ryan said. “But what we do know is that this will increase economic growth.”

See, he said this after the bill was already passed.

Even the conservative analysis we've seen in recent weeks tells us the bill won't pay for itself. The conservative Tax Foundation found that the bill will add to the national debt even if all the economic growth prophesied by Ryan materializes.

Ryan knows it won't pay for itself even if he says so publicly. That's why he wants to cut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security; to pay for the tax cut bill that won't pay for itself.

Ryan noted separately that, in addition to Republicans’ tax cut bill, “we’ve got to control our spending. That, we have more work to do.”

“We clearly have to go after spending control.”

Of course.