I'm entirely on board with the deep truth that cutting one's income is just as sure a road to debt as overspending one's income.
But whatever media wag or policy wonk first coined that notion that a tax cut (a loss of income) is the same as spending has much intellectual confusion to answer for.
That the first idea and the second are functionally the same sounds like respectable wisdom for an accountant or bookkeeper. As a driver of policy or of personal conduct it is magnificently foolish, corrupt or both.
They have been learning these lines for years, like a recited poem. Long-term memory hangs on longer than short term as dementing processes set in.
ReplyDeleteHe's not far wrong, though. He intends to pay with MMT. Those aren't actually dollars.
ReplyDeleteEric Hines
I'm entirely on board with the deep truth that cutting one's income is just as sure a road to debt as overspending one's income.
ReplyDeleteBut whatever media wag or policy wonk first coined that notion that a tax cut (a loss of income) is the same as spending has much intellectual confusion to answer for.
That the first idea and the second are functionally the same sounds like respectable wisdom for an accountant or bookkeeper. As a driver of policy or of personal conduct it is magnificently foolish, corrupt or both.
A tax cut most assuredly is not a loss of income; it's an increase of income.
ReplyDeleteOr whose money is it?
Of course, from Government's perspective, cutting taxes is spending--or whose money is it?
Eric Hines
I suspect the real cost will be measured in Chinese yuan.
ReplyDeleteI hope that my wife doesn't adopt that line.
ReplyDelete