Economic Moron Watch
For punishment, I sometimes read what Republican partisans actually believe about economics. The level of hyper-ignorance is shocking. Here is a statement from somebody called Ed Morrissey:
“The Left has demonized the Bush tax cuts as the Source of All Deficits for years, even though tax revenues increased after the cuts as the economy began booming again.’
Do these people really believe stuff like this? Isn’t he aware of the difference between the tax rate and the tax base, and that a fall in nominal revenue would entail a major recessionary effect on the tax base? Simply looking at whether revenue increased is the height of idiocy – the relevant comparison is the revenue relative to what it would have been without the tax cut. And the answer here is pellucid: substantially higher. How you can you have a serious economic debate with people like Morrissey who will deny simple facts like tax cuts cause deficits to increase? It’s like debating science with a person who believes the earth is flat. Does Morrissey really represent the dominant inside-the-bubble view? I don’t know what I find more distasteful – that they believe this hooey, or that they are making it up to cynically mask upward redistribution.
(Read the whole thing if you have the stomach for it. He goes on to argue that extending unemployment benefits makes the recession worse!)
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Republicans are allergic to facts.
There is the embarrassing fact that Morrissey’s claims simply aren’t true. Measured in constant (2005) dollars, tax receipts for 2000 were 2.3T. They would not recover that level until 2006. When you figure in the population growth, they never did recover. Furthermore, gov’t expenditures grew from $2.0T to $2.7T in 2008, which is an enormous rate of growth, far exceeding the population growth. That happens when you run two simultaneous wars that you decline to pay for.
As you say, it is like debating with people who believe in a flat earth.
It is pretty standard Laffer curve stuff. Bruce Bartlett is about the only one who has seriously gone after it.
And yet they have “taken back their country!” The nation clamors for a return to Bush era government.
Yikes.
He goes on to argue that extending unemployment benefits makes the recession worse!)
Burn the heretic! Burn the heretic! He probably he even thinks voting for pro-choice politicians because they will end rendition, close Gitmo, end the Middle East wars, and raise taxes on the rich is looking pretty dumb bargain. Silly man.
Heretic? Quite the contrary. No saint, no desert father, no holy crusader ever had the faith in God that Morrisey and modern conservatives have in the Laffer curve.
I think you hit on the key point, but you’re looking at it wrong. The Republicans argue that a lowering of the tax rate increases the tax base, potentially offsetting the loss in revenue caused by the declining tax rate.
Either they believe it, or they’re evil. Those are the only two explanations for their policy prescriptions. Doesn’t charity dictate that you assume they believe it, until the opposite is demonstrated?
“Either they believe it, or they’re evil. ”
Either they believe it in the face of the evidence provided by recent history or they are evil.
But that’s being melodramatic: they are not “evil,” they are exactly the sort of self-interested individuals that are a necessary condition of capitalism.
Which we have all taken a solemn vow NOT to criticize.
Yes, that’s a rhetorical question….
Besides the poison-lightbulb requirement, we will now have Government Controlled School Bake Sales!
In fewer words, the secretary [of Agriculture] is required to regulate school bake sales unless he chooses to grant special exemptions.
For the moment, let’s disregard the 220++ exemptions, and counting, granted under ObozoCare.
Ponder, instead, that the FedGov DOES have the self-arrogated authority to smash-mouth Mom Smith over her Girl-Scout cookie sale.
And don’t forget that SecAg will require at least another 1,000 or so bureaucrats to monitor those schools and those moms. Not to mention another several dozens of thousands of pages of regulatory jibberish…….
I’m going back to default: BUY MORE AMMO!!!