Tim Pawlenty Proposes to Cut Taxes and Balance the Budget and Cannot do Basic Math

A Perfect Candidate for the Tea Party.

The Dismal Political Economist has been waiting for the first Republican Presidential Candidate to make a massive pander to the extreme right wing of the party on fiscal matters, and sure enough, here comes former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty out of the starting gate.  His proposal to cut taxes and balance the budget is reported in detail in the Washington Post.

After the usual Conservative blather, Mr. Pawlenty gets down to business.

Pawlenty also proposed slashing the corporate income tax from 35 percent to 15 percent, and he proposed establishing just two individual tax rates: 10 percent for the first $50,000 of income ($100,000 for married couples), and 25 percent for all income above that. The result would be a one-third cut in the bottom rate and a 28 percent cut in the top rate.

Pawlenty also wants to eliminate the capital gains tax, interest income tax, dividends tax and estate tax.

Notice, of course, that no dollar amounts are provided, which of course would show that the majority of the amounts would be going to the wealthiest taxpayers, but then everyone knew that anyway.

On spending, Pawlenty continues the Conservative tradition of being for spending cuts without being for any specific spending cuts, a practice The Dismal Political Economist has already commented on

Here with respect to Grover Norquist

And

Here with respect to a respected WSJ Columnist.

This makes sense, you don’t want to start the campaign being known for elminiating federal aid to education, agriculture, veterans’s benfits etc.

The big news though is that Mr. Pawlenty will balance the budget in 2017.  How?  Well he proposes

to cut 1 percent of federal spending each year for the next six years, a plan that would balance the national budget by 2017, he said.

Now 1% of Federal Spending is about $38 billion per year, so six years worth of cuts would be about $230 billion.  The deficit is $1.6 trillion.  You do the math, because apparently Mr. Pawlenty cannot. And don’t forget to add in the tax cuts.