U.S. Budget and Economy

On March 1st, the Senate Budget Committee held a hearing on tax reform to encourage growth, reduce the deficit, and promote fairness. Three expert witnesses testified. They were Dr. Leonard E. Burman, a professor at Maxwell School of Syracuse University, Dr. Diane Lim Rogers, the chief economist of the Concord Coalition, and Dr. Daniel J. Mitchell, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A video of the full hearing can be seen at this link . Senator Ron Johnson begins questioning the panel of witnesses at about minute 97 of the video (this portion of the hearing is also posted on Senator Johnson's website and on YouTube ). He began by having the following chart held up: According to Table 1.3 in the Historical Tables and Table S-1 of the Summary Tables from the most recent U.S. Budget, the 10-year outlays for these three periods are 15.936, 27.879 and 46.959 trillion dollars, respectively. Hence, the chart is technically correct. One of the panelists, Dr. Mitchell, posted thi...