Bloomberg: House Republicans, in one of their first acts in the majority, weakened the chamber’s anti-deficit budgeting rules to make it easier to approve tax cuts even if they add to the government’s financial shortfall.The rules approved today, on a 240-191 party-line vote, will let lawmakers cut taxes without having to offset the cost with savings elsewhere in the budget. Proposed spending increases must be paid for with cuts in other areas, though, and tax increases to pay for new spending are prohibited.
That marks a major change from how Democrats set the fiscal rules when they controlled the House from 2007 through 2010. The Democrats often relied on closing what they termed tax loopholes benefiting corporations to produce the revenue needed to pay for their priorities.
Representative Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman described the rule as “cut as you go. If you want new spending, you’d better cut spending somewhere else to pay for it.” The Democrats’ rule, known as pay-go, had become “an excuse to raise taxes,” he said. Read more at Bloomberg……
Editor’s note: Shouldn’t you have both rules?
