Geithner Sees No Evidence Tax Cuts Pay for Themselves

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said tax cuts don’t pay for themselves in economic growth, and he urged lawmakers to let the reductions for the wealthiest Americans expire. Geithner dismissed the “long-discredited idea” that tax cuts generate enough growth-related income to offset their fiscal impact, in a speech in Washington today at the Center for American Progress, a policy research group run by John Podesta, an adviser to the Obama administration. “There is absolutely no evidence to support it,” he said. The administration wants to let tax breaks expire for households earning more than $250,000 a year, while maintaining reductions for households earning less than that. The tax cuts, enacted in 2001 and 2003 during former President George W. Bush’s administration, are expiring Dec. 31. Geithner said the administration can’t afford to extend the reductions for higher- income households. Read more here:

Geithner Sees No Evidence Tax Cuts Pay for Themselves