* Marino and Barletta voted Tuesday and Wednesday for a tax bill that is heavily weighted to corporate and wealthy interests and over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, will add $1.44 trillion to the deficit that both lawmakers claim to loath.
* Marino and Barletta both trot out discredited “trickle-down” theories holding that tax-cut-generated growth will cover the deficit. But the CBO found that, even if those imaginary growth projections are realized, the deficit still will grow by at least $1 trillion.
Scranton Times-Tribune: Honesty deficit
By The Editorial Board
Both Republican congressmen from Northeast Pennsylvania, 10th District Rep. Tom Marino of Lycoming County and 11th District Rep. Lou Barletta of Luzerne County, rode the 2010 tea party wave into Congress. Both dutifully have recited the ideological canon of that movement, especially regarding deficit reduction.
The first bill that Marino sponsored in 2011 was for a federal hiring freeze that would not be lifted until the federal deficit was eliminated.
Barletta, in 2013, called for a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“This is a country that spends $1 trillion more each year than it takes in,” he said. “If we’re talking about raising our credit limit, I don’t think it’s too much to ask that we require our government to balance its checkbook.”
In both cases, uh, never mind. Marino and Barletta voted Tuesday and Wednesday for a tax bill that is heavily weighted to corporate and wealthy interests and over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, will add $1.44 trillion to the deficit that both lawmakers claim to loath.
Marino and Barletta both trot out discredited “trickle-down” theories holding that tax-cut-generated growth will cover the deficit. But the CBO found that, even if those imaginary growth projections are realized, the deficit still will grow by at least $1 trillion.
Apparently, if they remain in Congress, Marino’s and Barletta’s deficit fight will have to await the next Democratic president.
Read the editorial here.