Role of Bush Tax Cuts on Deficit

Nice job today by Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla) on 'Face the Nation'.  

Some highlights:

"How did we get into this problem of the big deficit?" Nelson said. "It's basically a fall-off of revenues and an increase in spending. So you got to correct that imbalance; otherwise you're not doing real deficit reduction."

 In debating the tax revenue part of the equation with fellow guest Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., Nelson said, "Jeffrey, you have to acknowledge that part of our deficit problem was the huge Bush tax cuts in the early part of the decade. What was handed off to the new administration of over a trillion dollars of annual deficit, that accounted for almost half of it. If you're going to be real about the numbers, you're going to have to address these kinds of things."

"That's not accurate, Bill," Sessions responded. "The revenue went up every single year after those tax cuts were put in. The revenue is down now because of the low economy ... It's not because taxes have been cut in recent years. It's because people are not making money. They're not paying as much taxes. So increasing taxes on that weakened economy is not the way to increase revenue. "

A review of data from the White House Office of Management and Budget shows that tax revenues did not consistently increase after the Bush tax cuts went into effect.

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