What Do Republicans Do When an Independent Government Report on Taxes Contradicts Their Theology on Taxes?

They Force Its Withdrawal

Intellectual Dishonesty – One Report at a Time

When a Congressional Research Service economic research report determined that there was no correlation between high marginal tax rates and economic growth, Republicans were outraged.  Since their economic policy positions are based on unquestionable faith, any independent report by professional economists that found actual results in conflict with Republican positions must be wrong.

So Republican pressure resulted in the CRS withdrawing the report.

The Congressional Research Service has withdrawn an economic report that found no correlation between top tax rates and economic growth, a central tenet of conservative economic theory, after Senate Republicans raised concerns about the paper’s findings and wording.

What exactly were the GOP’s complaints?  Well they went something like this.

Senate Republican aides said they had protested both the tone of the report and its findings. Aides to Mr. McConnell presented a bill of particulars to the research service that included objections to the use of the term “Bush tax cuts” and the report’s reference to “tax cuts for the rich,” which Republicans contended was politically freighted.

Gee, we thought the Republicans were proud of the Bush tax cuts, wanted them made permanent and thought they were the cure of all the economic ills of the nation.

But here is the real offending portion of the report.

“The reduction in the top tax rates appears to be uncorrelated with saving, investment and productivity growth. The top tax rates appear to have little or no relation to the size of the economic pie,” the report said. “However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution.”

Wow, no wonder Republicans wanted legitimate research squelched, can’t have the truth out there can we?