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May 16, 2005

Wilde: "All that Economics is Soooo Complicated..."

I listened to about the first two minutes of the Wild Wendy Wendy Wilde show on the local FrankenNet affiliate.

Oy, oy, oy indeed.

The topic was the Taxpayers' League's current radio ad campaign against tax hikes.

Wilde put some of her keen grasp of economics on display. Or, to be fair, perhaps it was a keen display of her knowledge of her audience's ignorance.

Or maybe both.

Anyway - Wilde said (and I'm closely paraphrasing, since I don't have a recorder in my car):

...back before the permanent tax cuts [when Minnesota cut the marginal state income tax rate down to somewhere near middle class levels], Minnesota had great job growth! Since the tax cuts...where are the jobs?"
Jeez, Wendy. There might have been a little terrorist attack in there somewhere? Which might have led to the popping of the Clinton Bubble? Remember any of that?

Any of it?

Or do you remember the fact that Minnesota rode out the last recession a whole lot better than the early nineties' recession?

No?

At the beginning of the show, Wilde said "I guess the pressure of having a radio station in town calling his bluff must be getting to him!".

While I doubt that Pawlenty pays any attention to the local FrankenNet affiliate, one wonders if Ms. Wilde is capable of enough reason to note the irony.

Posted by Mitch at May 16, 2005 12:23 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Here's a little thought experiment:

For simplicity assume everyone pays the same income tax rate. At zero percent tax rate, obviously the government starves to death.

But at a 100 percent tax rate, the government also starves to death because slavery doesn't work well without the chains.

So, SOMEWHERE between the zero percent tax rate, and the 100 percent tax rate, there is some IDEAL rate that brings in the MOST tax revenue to the government. What most liberals don't understand is, the IDEAL tax rate--the one that brings in the MOST cash--is on the LOW end of the rate scale, not the high end. Generally when tax rates go down, the actual revenue goes up. It's not a zero sum game.

If liberals are so smart, why can't they get this?

Posted by: RBMN at May 16, 2005 10:41 AM

Or, as Milton Friedman would say, "If you cut taxes and government revenues increase, you haven't cut taxes ENOUGH."

Posted by: mike at May 16, 2005 12:27 PM

MNRB:

One slight correction for you, if I may.

You say that government would "starve" at a zero percent tax rate. If because you are Wendy-Witless is yammering about the individual tax rate....I assume you are too. In fact....if we did go to a zero individual tax rate, you omit all the OTHER taxes our little government grabs. Excise and sales taxes.....corporate taxes....and all those fees for license tabs and fishing licenses....Big Brother has alot of money from other source. But...every dime comes out of your pocket.

Posted by: Dave at May 16, 2005 01:55 PM

Geez, RBMN, that comment's a real Laffer.

You ought to draw a diagram on a napkin.
.

Posted by: nathan bissonette at May 16, 2005 01:57 PM
hi