Washington (July 27, 1999) – With most of official Washington debating the chances for tax cuts this year, National Center for Policy Analysis Senior Fellow and nationally recognized tax policy expert, Bruce Bartlett warns Congress; "If we can't cut taxes when we have a large budget surplus, when can they ever be cut?"
According to Bartlett – who first championed the idea of a 10% across-the-board tax cut in the New York Times on the same day as the president's state of the union address – failure to cut taxes from time to time means that taxes will automatically rise. "As long as we have progressive tax rates and a tax system that is not fully indexed, inflation and real growth will push people into higher brackets and increase their tax burden. Indeed, this effect is so strong that the 1997 tax cut didn't even keep taxes from rising."
WHO: Bruce Bartlett, Ncpa Senior Fellow
WHAT: Tax Policy Expert
WHEN: Available Immediately
Bartlett, a Senior Fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis, is a prolific author, having published more than 700 articles in national publications including The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, as well as many prominent magazines such as Fortune. His twice-weekly column on economic policy is published in the Washington Times and Detroit News and is nationally syndicated by Creators Syndicate. In 1996 one of his columns inspired Bob Dole's 15-percent tax reduction plan.
Before joining the NCPA, Bartlett was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the U.S. Treasury Department, where he served from September 1988 to January 1993. In 1987 and 1988 Bartlett was a Senior Policy Analyst in the Office of Policy Development at the White House.