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Tenney Falsely Claims TrumpTax Has Already Paid For Itself

ICYMI: TENNEY FALSELY CLAIMS TRUMPTAX HAS ALREADY PAID FOR ITSELF

Washington Post Fact-Check Gives Tenney Four Pinocchios For “Extremely Dicey” Claims About Impact Of Republican Tax Scam On Economy

BINGHAMTON — After Congresswoman Claudia Tenney falsely claimed in a radio interview that the $1.5 trillion deficit created by the TrumpTax had already been “eclipsed” by government income, the Washington Post issued a fact-check proving that Tenney used some creative math and “extremely dicey” evidence to support her claim.

According to the article:

“Tenney said Trump’s tax cuts had paid for themselves in six months and wondered why no one was covering this story. Maybe because it’s totally wrong.

“The congresswoman seems to have gotten her wires crossed, confusing total economic growth with tax revenue collections.  Her revised claim that Trump’s tax cuts are on a 10-year path to pay for themselves is also extremely dicey, so we award Four Pinocchios.”

As the Washington Post explains, citing a Congressional Budget Office analysis, while it’s expected that the TrumpTax—which Tenney helped to pass—will generate increased economic activity, the federal government is still facing a dramatically smaller amount of tax revenue as a result.

“In a nutshell: While Trump’s tax cuts would generate net economic activity, the government would not reap as much revenue as it did under the previous, higher tax rates, the CBO analysis found.”

Despite Tenney’s claims to the contrary, the TrumpTax passed in December blew a $1.5 trillion hole in the deficit and gave more than 80 percent of its tax breaks to the richest 1 percent of the country. The CEO of a major employer in Tenney’s district, who hosted Tenney’s meeting with Ivanka Trump last week, even cited the massive impact of the TrumpTax on the national debt as a source of concern with the bill. Corporations are spending 88 times as much to buy back stock and reward rich shareholders and executives than they’re spending on worker raises or bonuses, and raking in 11 times the amount in tax breaks than they’re passing on to workers.

Tenney has made every effort to take a victory lap on the TrumpTax, including repeatedly standing alongside Trump Administration members and allies – such as Ivanka Trump and Congressman Devin Nunes – and distorting the facts to claim the bill will help workers. But while corporate profits have soared, worker pay has remained stagnant, and Central New York job growth has faltered since the bill passed, and the net impact of the bill will be increased costs for the bottom 60 percent of earners in New York because of the repeal of the individual mandate.