DeFazio says Chris Cox a ‘total idiot’ on tax prediction

DeFazio said Cox predicted that higher taxes would kill job creation, but said Cox was wrong because tax increases during the Clinton administration led to more revenue and did nothing to hurt jobs, as shown by the 1990s’ 3.8 percent unemployment rate.

DeFazio also quoted now-House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who said Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem — a line Republicans have repeated often this year. But DeFazio rejected that by noting the trillions in tax cuts Republicans have offered to the rich.

“We do have a revenue problem,” he said. “Five trillion dollars of tax cuts over the last decade. Five trillion. Five thousand billion dollars of tax cuts.”