Opinion Editorial | |
| Monday, June 29, 1998 | |
Clinton's Remarkable Record on Taxes |
The Commerce Department recently released data on federal revenues in
the first quarter of 1998. Once again, they show that taxes have hit another
record at 21.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). As has been true
for the last two years, revenues have never been higher at any time in American
history. To put Bill Clinton's remarkable record into context: the average share
of federal taxes in GDP during the entire postwar period up until 1992 was
18.5 percent. Federal taxes claimed 19 percent of GDP when Clinton took
office in the first quarter of 1993, already above their postwar average.
Yet despite this fact, his first major action in office was to enact one
of the largest tax increases in American history.
Thus federal taxes throughout the five-plus years of the Clinton Administration
have averaged a level higher than at the peak of either World War II or
the Korean War. The highest percentage of GDP federal taxes ever took prior to the Clinton
Administration was 20.7 percent -- achieved briefly in the 2nd quarter of
1969 when the Vietnam War surtax was in effect, and again in the first half
of 1981 as the result of massive, inflation-induced bracket-creep. Clinton
exceeded this previous high in the 2nd quarter of 1996 when revenues hit
20.8 percent of GDP. We have been above that level ever since. The latest all-time peak achieved by the Clinton Administration: federal
revenues are now a full percentage point higher than the highest level ever
before achieved in the history of the United States. With GDP at better
than $8 trillion, this means that Americans are paying $80 billion more
in taxes than they would pay if Clinton merely equaled the highest level
ever previously recorded. With congressional Republicans proposing thimble-sized tax cuts and Clinton
opposed to any tax cut, it appears that taxes will continue to rise for
the foreseeable future. There has never been a recession in American history
solely caused by taxation, although the great economist Joseph Schumpeter
blamed the 1937-38 recession largely on Roosevelt's 1934 tax increase, and
John F. Kennedy viewed the 1960-61 slowdown as primarily tax-driven. The
recession of 1999 may be another. Source: Bruce Bartlett, senior fellow, National Center for Policy Analysis,
June 29, 1998. Home | Support Us | All Issues | Social Security Debate Central | Contact Us |
