Indeed, The Concord Coalition views the tax plan as a threat to the long-term financial integrity of Social Security and Medicare, two programs that Concord believes can only be saved if dollars for the tax cut instead are devoted to reducing the unfunded liabilities of these programs. A careful reading of The Concord Coalition s concerns, however, reveals significant misunderstanding of the president s plan and some questionable economics. More aggressive attempts to reduce the federal debt could only be accomplished by disrupting short term bond markets. President Bush could have proposed a tax relief plan that achieved most of the cuts in the early years. Instead, he chose to phase in tax relief over time, thereby allowing future Congress's to take the measure of the economy and government needs along the way, and make adjustments accordingly.
Nothing is further from the truth.
Nearly every economist writing on how tax rate changes affect economic growth has concluded that reasonable rate reductions that leave the government with enough revenues to meet its needs can significantly boost general economic activity. However, The Concord Coalition ignores these studies and, thereby, the economic benefits of substantial tax relief. Their static analysis disregards the fact that lower tax rates encourage more work, saving, investment, and entrepreneurship, and this additional economic activity means more jobs and higher incomes. 2 Create more job opportunities . Over 1.6 million more Americans would be working at the end of FY 2011, compared with the CBO baseline forecast.