Chairman Buchanan, Ranking Member Doggett, Members of the Committee, thank you for the chance to testify on the important subject of “tax extenders.” My testimony will discuss the provisions that were recently extended retroactively through 2017 in the context of our overall fiscal challenges and the recently enacted tax overhaul.
1. Continuing to renew tax extenders without offsetting them would drain needed revenue, making it harder to meet our fiscal and economic challenges
The United States needs to raise more revenue, not less, to meet our national challenges. An aging population and the retirement of the Baby Boom generation are putting increasing pressure on the federal budget. Existing levels of revenue will not be enough to fully meet commitments to Social Security and Medicare over the long term. At the same time, the United States has substantially underinvested in critical national priorities, including infrastructure, education, and child care, even as we face new and growing challenges like the opioid crisis. Among advanced economies, the United States is a very low-tax country, ranking 31st out of 35 countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The above excerpt was originally published in House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Tax Policy.
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