Tax Policy Center: ‘Premature Guesses Based On Partisan Assumptions’

The ‘Tax Policy Center Betrays Its Bias By Making Premature Guesses Based On Partisan Assumptions’

WALL STREET JOURNAL: “…the Tax Policy Center betrays its bias by making premature guesses based on partisan assumptions.” (Editorial, “Tax Policy Center Propaganda,” Wall Street Journal, 10/1/2017)

• WSJ: “…the analysis is impossibly specific, given that last week’s blueprint excluded the income ranges for the individual brackets of 12%, 25% and 35%; the value of the expanded child tax credit, and when that would phase out; rates for pass-through businesses, or safeguards for abuse that may limit who can claim the income or how much; the discount rate at which cash and other corporate assets will be invited back to the United States; which deductions will be eliminated; and many other details that would be essential for any honest score. … Last week’s GOP framework explicitly included discretion for committees in Congress to iron out details.” (Editorial, “Tax Policy Center Propaganda,” Wall Street Journal, 10/1/2017)

TAX POLICY CENTER: “Many aspects of the plan were unspecified or left to be determined by the tax writing committees in Congress. The Tax Policy Center (TPC) has completed a preliminary analysis of the proposals contained in the unified framework [anyway]...” (“A Preliminary Analysis Of The Unified Framework,” 9/29/2017)

The ‘Two Left-Leaning Think Tanks’ ‘Always Seem To Provide Analysis That Serves Those Who Want To Raise Tax Rates’

WEEKLY STANDARD: “It's very odd that the Tax Policy Center is being positioned as the ‘moderate’ organization… The Tax Policy Center is joint effort by the Brookings Institution and Urban Institute, two left-leaning think tanks. What we have here are a liberal and an even more liberal critique of a conservative Republican's tax plan…” (“Be Very, Very Wary Of Criticisms Of GOP Economic Plans,” Weekly Standard, 12/9/15)

NATIONAL REVIEW: “In both [the 2008 and 2012] campaigns, Democrats laundered their attacks through supposedly non-partisan entities like the Tax Policy Center (TPC), a joint project of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution.” (“The Coming Tax War In The 2016 Race,” National Review, 12/2/2015)

2012: The Tax Policy Center Produced ‘A Highly Ideological Tract Based On False Assumptions… Custom Made For The Obama Campaign’

WALL STREET JOURNAL: “The center did a similar sandbag job on Mitt Romney’s tax reform proposal during the 2012 campaign…” (Editorial, “Tax Policy Center Propaganda,” Wall Street Journal, 10/1/2017)

“…President Obama has taken to calling Mitt Romney's economic plan ‘Robin Hood in reverse’ or ‘Romney Hood.’ ... His evidence is a single study by the Tax Policy Center, a liberal think tank that has long opposed cutting income tax rates. … the media are treating this joint Brookings Institution and Urban Institute analysis as if it's nonpartisan gospel. In fact, it's a highly ideological tract based on false assumptions, incomplete data and dishonest analysis. In other words, it is custom made for the Obama campaign.” (“The Romney Hood Fairy Tale,” The Wall Street Journal, 8/9/2017)

• “…the TPC study, which Obama added to his stump speech upon its release Aug. 1. The Obama campaign is also using the study to hammer Romney in TV ads.” (“Conservatives Challenge Obama’s Attack On Romney Tax Plan,” The Washington Post, 10/2/2012)

WALL STREET JOURNAL: “Obama's tax gurus… It isn't easy being the intellectual frontmen for President Obama's re-election campaign, as the boys at the Brookings-Urban Institute Tax Policy Center are discovering.” (Editorial, “Mathematically Possible: Correcting The False Assumptions Of Obama's Tax Gurus,” Wall Street Journal, 8/15/12)

• “It should also embarrass the analysts at the Tax Policy Center who claim to be nonpartisan, above-the-fray economists but somehow always seem to provide analysis that serves those who want to raise tax rates.” (Editorial, “Mathematically Possible: Correcting The False Assumptions Of Obama's Tax Gurus,” Wall Street Journal, 8/15/12)

“At the time [in 2012], some affiliated with TPC were taken aback at the obvious showing of partisan colors. A week after the paper’s release, TPC’s then-director Donald Marron acknowledged the paper did not, in fact, analyze Romney’s actual plan and wouldn’t go as far as the Obama campaign ads claimed.” (“The Coming Tax War In The 2016 Race,” National Review, 12/2/2015)

• DAVID MARRON: Regarding “Governor Romney’s tax proposal. …the authors had to confront a fundamental challenge: Governor Romney has not offered a fully-specified plan.” (“Understanding TPC's Analysis Of Governor Romney's Tax Plan,” Tax Policy Center, 8/8/2012)

• BROOKINGS: “We do not score Governor Romney’s plan directly, as certain components of his plan are not specified in sufficient detail, nor do we make assumptions regarding what those components might be.” (“On The Distributional Effects Of Base-Broadening Income Tax Reform,” Brookings, 8/1/2012)

2008: ‘Senator McCain Certainly Branded The Organization As A Liberal Shill’

“During the 2008 campaign, Senator McCain certainly branded the organization as a liberal shill doing the bidding of the Democrats.” (“Romney Tax Plan Devastated By Non-Partisan Tax Policy Center-But Is The Tax Policy Center Really Non-Partisan?” Forbes, 8/1/2012)