thoughts from a guy who used to cut taxes

[robfilms]

Bruce Bartlett held senior policy roles in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations and served on the staffs of Representatives Jack Kemp and Ron Paul. He is the author of “The Benefit and the Burden: Tax Reform – Why We Need It and What It Will Take.”

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/0...the-g-o-p/

pretty interesting!

be well

rob

[rjmacs]

Thanks for the link, rob. This guy reminds me of the best conservatives i've known at Rand and similar orgs. Data-driven and rigorous, he's upset by ideology-driven policies that are willing to obscure the numbers to achieve particular ends.

cbelt3, what do you think? Sounds like your kinda guy...

[Grace62]

Yet another bad Republican idea on its way to the Senate graveyard.

[rjmacs]

Grace62 wrote:
Yet another bad Republican idea on its way to the Senate graveyard.

Like line-item veto! (Which had Obama licking his lips with anticipation, ever hungry to expand executive power.)

[cbelt3]

I'll have to review at home.. too much for a snapshot opinion. Thanks for sharing.

[Acer]

rjmacs wrote:
[quote=Grace62]
Yet another bad Republican idea on its way to the Senate graveyard.

Like line-item veto! (Which had Obama licking his lips with anticipation, ever hungry to expand executive power.)
Now there's a blast from the past! Funny how no one discusses it anymore. Back in the day it was The Answer to All Our Worries (when the Congress was Democrat and the President Republican, of course.)

Didn't they finally come up with some sort of backdoor line item veto power in the 90s that no one ended up using? (Too lazy to google.)

[Ted King]

Thanks for the link. I had read other people who referenced what Bartlett was saying, but I hadn't read the article itself. Excellent. I'd note this in particular:

While no economist denies the theoretical possibility of a revenue-raising tax cut or revenue-losing tax increase, Republicans talk as if the United States is always on the high side of the Laffer curve – no matter what the tax rates are – so every tax cut will pay for itself and no tax increase could possibly ever raise net revenue and thus reduce the deficit.

That goes right at the heart of many Republican economic policies - including Romney's. That sort of thinking comes from ideology not empirical evidence.

[JoeH]

Acer wrote:
[quote=rjmacs]
[quote=Grace62]
Yet another bad Republican idea on its way to the Senate graveyard.

Like line-item veto! (Which had Obama licking his lips with anticipation, ever hungry to expand executive power.)
Now there's a blast from the past! Funny how no one discusses it anymore. Back in the day it was The Answer to All Our Worries (when the Congress was Democrat and the President Republican, of course.)

Didn't they finally come up with some sort of backdoor line item veto power in the 90s that no one ended up using? (Too lazy to google.)
They gave Clinton the line item veto in 1996, it was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1998.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_Item_Veto_Act_of_1996

[August West]

Excellent editorial link, robfilms! Suggested reading for any political persuasion, to see the kind of thinking needed in DC.