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State of the Union fact check: What Donald Trump is claiming - ABC News

posted onFebruary 2, 2018
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Article snippet: After a tumultuous and busy first year in office, President State of the Union address to Congress and the country. Our team of journalists from ABC News investigated some of those statements, looking for additional context, detail and information. Here is ABC News' fact check of the address: TRUMP CLAIM: "We enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history." OUR TAKE: False WHY: The recently enacted tax bill is the 12th largest as a percentage of the GDP and the fourth largest in inflation-adjusted dollars since 1918. This is a claim the president has repeatedly made, but analyses of the current tax law and previous legislation show that's not the case. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law at the end of last year comes with a $1.5 trillion price tag, and according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an independent bipartisan public policy organization, it ranks as the 12th largest tax cut as a percentage of GDP and fourth largest in inflation-adjusted dollars since 1918. If the plan is extended, the group estimates the bill would cost $2.2 trillion, making it the eighth largest tax cut as a percentage of GDP and fourth largest in inflation-adjusted dollars since 1918. The tax cut signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 was the largest since 1918 -- reducing federal revenues by 2.9 percent of GDP, according to the Treasury Department. The president also claimed roughly 3 million workers have recei... Link to the full article to read more

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