Anti-deficit activists Alan Simpson, the former GOP senator from Wyoming, and Erskine Bowles, the former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, spoke out against the GOP tax plan when it was on the verge of a vote in the Senate last week, warning, “Real tax reform can provide a boost to the economy, but higher debt works in the opposite direction.” The Senate tax bill would add $1.4 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates.