I was listening to the Republican debate on Fox Business last night. It seemed all the candidates were claiming their tax plan would work economic miracles.

When Ted Cruz was asked about the deficits that would result from his plan, he assured us that some spending cuts would be involved but sure enough his tax plan is projected to run a multi-trillion dollar deficits over the decade but once you factor in the projected resulting economic growth, those deficits just disappear as the economy takes off. He didn’t go into any great detail as to what he would cut (other than abolishing 5 agencies of which he could name 4).

He told us the details were on his website- tedcruz.org. I was curious about the Ted Cruz economy so I looked but couldn’t find the details promised. There were opportunities to donate, sign up, volunteer, and buy Ted Cruz items but I didn’t want to do any of those things. I just wanted some information and some was there. You just had to look around awhile to find it. And then it did not have the details on cuts I was looking for.

I finally found some detail on his tax plan at https://www.tedcruz.org/tax_plan_summary/

It starts with a imagined growth scenario. It doesn’t really seem at that great but it is definitely very exact and very unclear. This is the Ted Cruz economy.

THE SIMPLE FLAT TAX PLAN SUMMARY
“Imagine 4.9 million new jobs. Instead of Obama’s income stagnation, imagine average wages rising 12.2 percent over the next decade. Capital investment rising 43.9 percent. And every income-level seeing double-digit increases in after-tax income. Imagine exports and manufacturing jobs booming. Our trade deficit falling as the tax bias against American made goods is eliminated. Imagine a 10 percent income tax, with every American filling out his or her taxes on a postcard or iPhone app. And abolishing the IRS as we know it.” – Ted Cruz

4.9 million jobs. He doesn’t give a time frame but the next sentence is about wage increases over 10 years so maybe that is what he means. 4.9 million jobs over 10 years in terrible. 4.9 million in his first term is terrible. On the other hand, a sustained 4.9 million jobs per year is much better than recent history. In the past 2 years we have added a bit over 4.9 million jobs.

My figures are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (September 2013 to August 2015). I picked those dates as the September and October figures for this year are subject to revision. But for this year alone including those provisional numbers, we have added over 3.5 million jobs in 10 months.

Then we have wages rising 12.2 percent in a decade. That seems not all that great, the increase is a bit over 1% per year. Hardly anything to get excited about.

Then more about the booming economy and simple taxes. Does this comparatively small increase in jobs and minuscule increase in wages should booming to you ? Is this the Ted Cruz economy ?