Newt Gingrich Wants to Raise Revenue by Decreasing Revenue

Proving that you can't teach an old newt new tricks, floundering Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich today revived his inner Ronald Reagan, offering up a tax and spending plan that cuts popular programs and reduces or eliminates taxes on wealthier Americans. Gingrich's tax plan is centered around five controversial ideas. First, he believes there should be no tax increases in 2013. Not raising additional revenue is sort of an interesting way of eliminating the deficit. Most sober analysts agree that tax increases will need to be a part of any long-term budget plans. Then again, “long-term” may be the key. Notice that Gingrich's plan only calls for no tax hikes in 2013. He would, presumably, be open to raising taxes in 2014, 2015, 2016 and beyond. This is another play straight out of the 1980 Ronald Reagan playbook. Reagan ran as a tax cutter, and in 1981 enacted massive tax cuts. Of course, Reagan also raised taxes in 1981, 1982, and 1983. His successor, President George HW Bush, raised taxes on the wealthy in 1991. President Bill Clinton raised taxes further in 1993. By 1995, the country had turned deficits into surpluses, until Republican George W. Bush cut taxes. Funny how that works! Perhaps Gingrich is hoping to exploit some of the same cynicism, arguing for tax cuts when he needs votes, and then pushing for the mature, rational response to deficits by raising taxes once safely in office. It worked for Reagan! Gingrich's plan also calls for eliminating the capital gains tax, allowing companies to deduct all capital expenses, abolishing the inheritance tax, and, oddly enough, reducing the corporate tax rate to Ireland's rate of 12.5 percent. It's unclear how cutting taxes for corporate America — which is already sitting on piles of unused cash and capital — would stimulate the economy in any meaningful way. Most curious is the call to set the United States corporate tax rate at the same level as Ireland. Considering Ireland is essentially a failed state at this point. They've gone bankrupt, and the bailout they received is not enough to guarantee they will crawl out of this hole caused by, you guessed it, not raising enough tax revenues. Why on Earth Gingrich would pick this particular nation as a shining example for what tax policy should look like, when Ireland is in financial ruin, is mind-boggling to even ponder. Maybe he thought he'd go full-Reagan and match Reagan's tax plans with Reagan's bothersome senility. Oh, and for the 10-15 percent of voters who are currently without a job, Newt Gingrich has news for you as well. Under his plan, unemployment benefits would be reduced to one month. After that, you're out of luck and automatically forced into a government work-retraining program. No word from the southern Gingrich if that forced labor training would involve cotton fields. For a former history professor, Gingrich has a shockingly poor understanding of the historical events that make his tax plans incredibly unlikely to succeed in doing anything but handing the election over to Obama.