Article • Dean Baker’s Beat the Press
Fact-based, data-driven research and analysis to advance democratic debate on vital issues shaping people’s lives.
Center for Economic and Policy Research
1611 Connecticut Ave. NW
Suite 400
Washington, DC 20009
Tel: 202-293-5380
Fax: 202-588-1356
https://cepr.net
The New York Times ran a piece on a warning from the Internal Revenue Service that it would not allow plans to circumvent the new limits on the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction by providing a credit for contributions to state-established charitable funds. At one point the piece told readers:
“The Treasury Department and the I.R.S. are worried that the workarounds could further balloon the cost of the tax cuts, which are projected to add more than $1 trillion to the national debt over a decade.”
NYT reporters must have some extraordinary mind-reading abilities if they can know what is really worrying the Treasury Department and IRS. The worries attributed to them here seem especially out of line with the known facts since the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have shown zero concern in their behavior about the size of the deficit.