Politics

At stake in this election is, among other things, the fate of almost $4.6 trillion in federal budget surpluses that the government expects to collect over the next ten years.

This Issue Brief compares the tax and spending plans of Al Gore and George Bush, and provides both static and dynamic forecasting of the economic effects of the candidates' proposals.

Candidates Bob Dole and Jack Kemp have proposed a dramatic tax cut plan that is designed to stimulate increased economic growth, remedy the decline in the value of the dependent deduction, and reduce the punitive treatment of capital gains. An analysis demonstrates that the plan is likely to achieve its goals, and only requires a spending cut of less than 2% to pay for itself.