Pfotenhauer Slams Tax Policy Center As ‘Liberal’, Ignores Conservative Criticism of Tax Plan
Pfotenhauer Slams Tax Policy Center As ‘Liberal’, Ignores Conservative Criticism of Tax Plan
Today, during an appearance on Fox News, McCain adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer dismissed the Tax Policy Center’s conclusion that Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) tax plan would increase the deficit. Pfotenhauer argued that the center was a “liberal think tank” that did not analyze “the spending side” of McCain’s plan:
[We'll] keep the growth rate in federal spending to about 2.4 percent. I love Austin’s statement that we are going to somehow balloon the deficit. First, the Tax Policy Center is a liberal think tank run by former Clinton-ites and Jason Furman worked there up until about two months ago. But set that aside. They don’t look at the spending side, they only look at the tax side.
Watch it:
But even conservative economists who have looked at the “spending side” of the senator’s plan, believe that his proposal would only add to the deficit:
- “The spending cuts are far too vague to be counted on for significant savings and, even if they were more specific, I can’t see how they would come close to offsetting the level of tax cuts he recommends.” [Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition]
- “[But] I am worried that continuing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will tear apart our social fabric and defeat any economic proposal to reduce the deficit and stimulate growth. Guns are crowding out butter.” [Michael Connolly, Professor of Economics, University of Miami]
- “He’s not going to balance the budget.” [William Albrecht, professor emeritus at the University of Iowa]
In July, the McCain campaign falsely suggested that 300 economists agreed that the senator’s economic plan could reduce the deficit and balance the budget by 2013. When contacted by reporters many of those economists — Connolly and Albrecht included — actually expressed deep reservations about McCain’ pledge to reduce the deficit.
2 Responses to “Pfotenhauer Slams Tax Policy Center As ‘Liberal’, Ignores Conservative Criticism of Tax Plan”
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Pretty much everything McCain says is a lie, or at least misleading. When will the MSM (other than MSNBC) start calling him on this?
August 26th, 2008 at 3:10 pmThere’s also a more unsavoury stink of hypocrisy when you consider this:
The Press Release that accompanied the misleading ‘Taxman‘ attack ad against Barack Obama cites the Tax Policy Center.
What’s more, if you visit the Tax Policy Center site you will see that McCain’s economic adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin had a very public and intense discussion with the Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee and the rest of the analytical team at the TPC on July 23.
The transcript highlights the cooperative nature of the discussion and the moderator Robert Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute, even stated that “There’s a common theme here: everybody’s affiliated with the CBO [Congressional Budget Office]; everybody is an economist.”
When Doug Holtz-Eakin said: “Well, thank you, Bob, and thank you, Len, and thank the Tax Policy Center for a chance to talk about this.” he didn’t seem to infer that he thought the TPC was a partisan or ‘liberal’ think tank where he was wasting his breath.
In fact the leader of the analysis, Len Burman, finished by saying that “Austan suggested the Tax Policy Center have a forum on spending. Doug said he was willing to participate so we’re going to try to set up a forum on spending in a couple of months if we’re – before the election.”. This was after he thanked both campaigns for their help by saying “And I want to thank Doug and Austan and their colleagues for all the help they gave me in trying to understand these things and fleshing out some details.” earlier in the event.
The McCain campaign has actively cooperated with the Tax Policy Center and has felt secure enough to cite them when it fitted their narrative and supported their TV ads. However, when it comes to criticism in the wider public domain Pfotenhaeur has the audacity to come out with trash like this.
August 26th, 2008 at 4:58 pm