Sanford Votes for Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
Wednesday, December 20th, 2017
Representative Mark Sanford voted for H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which passed the House by a vote of 227 to 203. He released the following statement:
“Over the next 10 years, the federal government is projected to take in $43 trillion from American citizens. With the tax cut, that number will drop to $41.5 trillion, and that $1.5 trillion difference is indeed the cost of the bill. The question we all have to ask ourselves is whether or not you think our federal functions can work at $41.5 trillion instead of $43 trillion. That’s a 3.5% difference, and most folks I talk to at home believe that government could afford a 3.5% cut so that they as individuals, and the economy at large, could use and invest that money instead.
“A 3.5% cut hardly fits the hyperbole we’ve heard in this debate, which has been misleading from both sides. From a Democratic standpoint, you would think that the end of the world was coming to government services as a result of this tax bill. From a Republican standpoint, you would think that they’re cutting off the spigot in Washington, and that you and I will be keeping a much larger chunk of the money we earn.
“As Milton Friedman said, ‘A reduction in taxes would have the same stimulative effect as an increase in spending, yet it would avoid the long-term adverse effect of increasing the role of government in the economy.’ I’ve long said that the government that governs best governs least, and in that regard, it seems to me that the federal government can certainly find ways to trim its budget, so that taxpayers get to keep a bit more in their pockets.”