|
|
The
views expressed
on this page are soley those of the author and do not
necessarily
represent the views of County News Online
|
 |
U.S. News & World Report
Ryan Gets It
Right
Dynamic scoring would show which tax changes are actually the most
beneficial.
By Pete Sepp
Oct. 28, 2014
It’s a week before the election, and Washington can’t seem to get
enough of “what if” scenarios. One has to do with the long-overdue task
of reforming our nation’s hopelessly burdensome, complex tax code.
In a speech before the Financial Services Roundtable, House Budget
Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., persuasively argued that
switching to “dynamic scoring” rules – which take into account possible
economic growth and the resulting higher revenues that tax reform
brings – could help Congress get the job done. And the speculation goes
that if Republicans win control of the Senate, the idea could gain more
traction in that chamber too.
Regardless of the partisan environment, dynamic scoring is a smart
approach that all policymakers should embrace. But what kind of tax law
changes, specifically, would show up in the dynamic scoring methodology
as among the most beneficial? Many would qualify, though they certainly
would include provisions that recognize the value of capital
investments, avoid double-taxation of income (especially foreign
earnings), don’t punish job creation, allow simple, immediate expensing
and treat all industries as uniformly as possible.
If only the Obama administration and its allies in Congress would bear
these principles in mind, particularly when it comes to one of their
favorite political targets for discriminatory tax policy: the oil and
gas sector. As a report released just last week from the minority staff
of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works indicates, the
benefits from this industry’s “energy renaissance” have spread far and
wide throughout the economy. The twin technologies of horizontal
drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the U.S. are, according to the
authors, “revitalizing our manufacturing sector,” “stabilizing prices
worldwide,” “making significant reductions to our trade deficit,” and
shielding “our citizens from the devastating energy poverty impacts
being felt in European countries.”
There are other practical advantages to this revolution. For example,
the report noted that in fiscal year 2012, public school districts
saved almost $741 million in electricity costs and nearly $467 million
for natural gas. Taking away oil and gas’s deductions, credits and
other treatments that the tax system affords in various ways to other
businesses would jeopardize this progress.
But even before the Senate’s report was released, there were many ways
to quantify the salutary impact of the energy boom. From 2007 to 2012,
employment growth in the oil and gas sector beat job gains in all other
sectors of the economy, according to the Energy Information
Administration. In 2011 alone, this area created 148,000 new jobs and
supported 9.8 million positions, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers
report. Additional job growth is expected as the energy sector,
particularly shale, continues to expand with the McKinsey Global
Institute predicting the possibility of up to 1.7 million new jobs.
For the rest of this article and more, go to U.S.
News & World Report
|
|
|
|
