Analysis: Santorum tax plan adds $1.3 trillion to deficit

Rick Santorum’s tax proposals would add well over $1 trillion to the deficit in 2015, a new nonpartisan analysis has found, among the highest of the GOP presidential candidates.

The Tax Policy Center found that Santorum’s plan would add some $1.3 trillion to the federal debt in 2015, if the Bush tax cuts and other provisions expire as scheduled.

If current policies were continued, Santorum’s plan would boost the budget deficit by $900 billion.

As they did with his fellow GOP candidates, the Tax Policy Center found that Santorum’s tax plan would be a boon to most wealthy taxpayers.

Compared to current policy, which keeps the Bush tax cuts in place, Santorum’s plan offers a lower bill to every taxpayer who makes north of $500,000 – and 99.9 percent of those making between $200,000 and $500,000.

The average tax cut for those making at least $1 million in cash income annually would be $447,810, according to the tax center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. The average household making seven figures brings in around $2.9 million a year.

In all, close to 70 percent of taxpayers would owe the government less under the former two-term senator’s proposal.

Just under 1 percent would see a tax increase, with those making between $20,000 and $30,000 a year the most likely to see a tax hike. Roughly 3.5 percent of taxpayers at that income level would see their bill rise, to the average tune of $294.

Under a scenario where the Bush tax cuts and other provisions expire, 81 percent of Americans would see their income taxes go down with the Santorum plan and 0.3 percent would see a tax hike.

In addition to lowering the top individual tax rate to 28 percent, Santorum has also proposed zeroing out the tax rate for manufacturers and to triple the exemption for dependent children. The former senator would also halve the tax rate for corporations outside the manufacturing sector, from 35 percent to 17.5 percent.

The former senator’s tax proposals on manufacturers and dependent children have been particularly panned by conservative analysts, who say Santorum is picking winners and losers through the tax code and even experimenting with social engineering.

According to the Tax Policy Center, Newt Gingrich’s tax plan would increase deficits by $1.28 trillion when compared to current law, and $850 billion when matched up against current policy.

Rick Perry’s flat tax plan would add close to $1 trillion to the debt in 2015 if the Bush tax cuts expired, and around $570 billion if they didn’t.

Mitt Romney’s tax plan would not bust deficits quite as much as his rivals, adding $600 billion to the federal debt in 2015 when compared to current law and $180 billion when compared to current policy.

But some conservative commentators, and other GOP candidates, have charged that Romney, the front-runner for the nomination, has something of a timid economic plan.

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