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A new survey of 250 economists in the business community by the National Association for Business Economics released on Monday revealed their strong support for increasing fiscal stimulus in the short term and taking a balanced approach to deficit reduction (including revenue increases as well as spending cuts) over the long term. This agreement among business economists stands in direct contrast to many conservative lawmakers in Washington, who increasingly favor spending cuts in the short term and actually decreasing taxes over the long term.
Of the economists surveyed, 67 percent favored maintaining or even increasing the current level of fiscal stimulus in 2013. Moving in the opposite direction, Congress actually enacted $984 billion in spending cuts (known as sequestration) last year, which go into effect starting in 2013; a full three quarters of the economists polled outright oppose allowing those sequestration cuts to take effect.
Although a majority of the business economists did favor extending tax cuts in 2013 to help stimulate the economy (although there was no majority for making all the tax cuts permanent), the reason more of them favor preserving government spending is likely explained by the fact that government spending typically has a much greater positive impact on economic growth than tax cuts.
Turning to the long haul, a full 90 percent of those surveyed believe that Congress should take a balanced approach to deficit reduction, meaning a combination of tax increases and spending cuts. And while there is near universal consensus among these economists for tax increases, neither the Democratic nor Republican party platforms support increasing tax revenue as part of a balanced approach to deficit reduction. Both parties instead call for reducing revenue by trillions of dollars (compared to what our tax system would collect if the tax cuts were all allowed to simply expire).
While the business community is often portrayed as being hindered by budget deficits and higher taxes, this survey reveals that they actually favor higher budget deficits in the short term and higher taxes over the long term. It’s time Congress begins listening to the actual business community rather than the anti-tax activists who pretend to speak for them.