Levin said the report was taken down 'in response to political pressure.' Levin wants answers on tax report

Rep. Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, is demanding answers from the Congressional Research Service on why it withdrew a report questioning the connection between income tax cuts and economic growth following Republican complaints.

In a Thursday letter to CRS Director Mary B. Mazanec, Levin said he was “deeply disturbed” that the report “was taken down in response to political pressure from congressional Republicans who had ideological objections to the report’s factual findings and conclusion.”


The New York Times reported Thursday that Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, raised objections to the wording and substance of parts of the report. The story also noted that the CRS analyst who authored the report, Thomas Hungerford, had given more than $5,000 to Democrats this election cycle. Some of Hungerford’s donations were noted last month by the Daily Caller.

The CRS report drew notice amid a growing debate over the looming fiscal cliff, and a potential tax reform debate, as many Republicans argue that tax cuts will boost the economy. “There is not conclusive evidence, however, to substantiate a clear relationship between the 65-year steady reduction in the top tax rates and economic growth,” the report said. “Analysis of such data suggests the reduction in the top tax rates have had little association with saving, investment or productivity growth.”

His report had drawn criticism from the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation, which noted last week in a blog post that the report had been withdrawn. “The report's methods were so seriously flawed that the study could not possibly pick up any relationship between taxes and growth, making its results, or lack of them, meaningless,” senior fellow Stephen Entin wrote Oct. 23.

The CRS is one of several nonpartisan research and analysis agencies in the federal government. Researchers are supposed to provide nonpartisan legal analysis and policy guidance for members of Congress — much like the Congressional Budget Office provides budget analysis.

The reports are traditionally considered the official guidance for members of Congress and their committees. Republicans have been increasingly skeptical of those reports in recent years — that’s why the decision to withdraw the tax report has some Democrats demanding answers.

Levin said the role of the CRS hinges on the political independence of the agency. “It would be completely inappropriate for CRS to censor one of its analysts simply because participants in the political process found his or her conclusion in conflict with their partisan position,” the Michigan Democrat wrote.

He called on Mazanec to explain who made the choice to take down the report, why the choice was made and what will be done to ensure it never happens again.

Antonia Ferrier, a spokeswoman for Orrin Hatch, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, sent an email to reporters Thursday afternoon saying that GOP staff had “shared a litany of concerns with CRS over the methodology, the analysis and the conclusions. It was a constructive conversation.”

“After we shared our concerns over the methodology of this report, CRS took it down, on its own volition,” Ferrier wrote. She also referenced Hungerford’s political contributions to Democrats. “If Republicans were interested in pressuring the CRS for political reasons, this surely wouldn’t be the first piece we chose to single out. This piece, however, took such liberties with economic analysis and CRS’s independent reputation, that a constructive discussion was necessary given its deep, irreparable flaws.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 4:04 p.m. on November 1, 2012.