But the vast majority of economists were scornful of these evasions. The tax cuts would clearly add to the deficit. Simpson and Bowles, who had headed Obama’s national commission on fiscal responsibility and reform, denounced the tax plan as a return to the era of “deficit denial.”69 In fact, it was not so much denial as hard-nosed political calculation. There was no way to cut the corporate tax rate to as little as 21 percent without incurring deficits.70 Nor did this scare the activist Republicans. As they saw it, the larger the deficits, the more urgent the need to move on to stage two of
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