Um, no
Monday, Jun 26, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Stephen Moore, an economic consultant at Freedom Works and senior economic analyst at CNN, writing in the Washington Times…
The media has hyper-obsessed over the Kansas tax hike this year and has sold this as a repudiation of “supply side economics.” But the real story in the states has been the catastrophic effects of “tax and spend” fiscal policy in Illinois. […]
Back in 2013 the previous governor, Democrat Pat Quinn, followed the advice of economists like Paul Krugman of The New York Times, and raised taxes on the very wealthiest residents of the Land of Lincoln. He argued that the super rich in Illinois could easily afford to pay a bigger share of the tax load and no one would leave.
The more Mr. Quinn raised taxes, the deeper the budget hole got. Whole resort towns in Florida and Arizona have become high-income refugee camps of former affluent residents of Chicagoland. […]
So what is the lesson for the rest of America? Soak the rich economics almost never works. As tax receipts keep sinking in Illinois, the safety net is tattered, the roads are in disrepair, crime is out of control in Chicago, and the state is home to some of the worst schools in the nation.
When you try to soak the rich, they leave, the state goes bankrupt and it’s the middle class that gets all wet. How’s that for tax fairness?
Why is the national media ignoring this story?
The national media isn’t “ignoring” this particular story because Moore has his facts completely wrong. Illinois has a flat income tax. It didn’t jack up tax rates solely on the rich, it jacked up tax rates on everybody, rich and poor, and it looks like it’s about to do it again.
Also, Quinn raised taxes once, and the bill payment cycle was reduced to under 30 days. That income tax hike was allowed to partially expire on January 1st of 2015 and it hasn’t since been restored. The government is running mostly on auto-pilot due to court orders and state statutes and the comptroller is struggling to pay state invoices from last September.
…Adding… As a commenter also points out, the tax hike was passed in 2011, not 2013, as Mr. Moore claims.
- Anon221 - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 9:42 am:
Stephen Moore and the fake and twisted news. Hopefully more media will fact-check him as Rich did.
- JS Mill - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 9:43 am:
Wow, either Moore is confused or a total liar. Hopefully CNN will correct the story, but I am not holding my breath.
I wonder how Minnesota fixed some of it’s issues. Apparently Moore didn’t catch that one.
- 360 Degree TurnAround - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 9:44 am:
The income tax increase was passed in 2011 as well. Not 2013.
- Chicago Cynic - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 9:44 am:
The national GOP views what happened in Kansas vs. high-tax states like Minnesota as an existential threat to their orthodoxy and they should. Kansas was the embodiment of the dreams of people like Bruce Rauner and it’s been an unmitigated disaster. By contrast, states like Minnesota and California have raised taxes significantly and seen their economies soar. They can’t explain it so they point to Illinois and make up their own facts.
It’s absurd but not unexpected.
- Lt Guv - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 9:45 am:
Can’t let facts get in the way of ideology. Published in the Washington Times, so facts weren’t required anyway.
- slow down - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 9:46 am:
The idea that an economist could fail to do even the simplest amount of research to know whether the state’s income tax system was progressive or flat is outrageous and embarrassing. Or he’s simply comfortable affirmatively misleading his readers.
Either way, it should disqualify him from being taken seriously.
- Shemp - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 9:47 am:
Stephen Moore Education: B.A., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Maybe our universities need defunded after all?
- Arsenal - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 9:49 am:
Does he really completely ignore the fact that the tax hike expired in 2014?
- Anonymous - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 9:50 am:
Rauner is to Illinois Policy Institute what the Koch brothers are to FreedomWorks. Paid figurers.
- Smitty Irving - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 9:51 am:
Apparently Mr. Moore saves $ by hiring fact-checkers who were fired for incompetence by the EIB Network and / or Fox News.
- 47th Ward - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 9:52 am:
If it is true that “There are none as blind as those who will not see,” then this guy is Stevie Wonder.
The first clue that this would be nonsense? He is a consultant to Freedom Works.
The second clue? The Washington Times published it.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 9:53 am:
The Washington Times is so far right-wing it makes FOX News look leftist. Moore deliberately ignores the pension fiasco and a half dozen other factors that have flummoxed Illinois.
Editorials are, by nature, slanted, but this is patently untrue.
- Steve Rogers - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 10:04 am:
tax and spend??? Illinois has long been avoiding income tax increases by underfunding pension payments and increasing sin taxes, which disproportionately affect the poor. Oh Mr. Moore, please do research before writing. It really helps.
- Lucky Pierre - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 10:04 am:
The media is frequently wrong about a lot of things, like the “fact” that Illinois is a blue state with low red state taxes. With our 3.75% rate (which is going up), we have the 9th highest total tax burden.
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-burden/20494/
They are also wrong about Wisconsin, Scott Walker is not a radical who has slashed government spending, they have the 11th highest total tax burden.
The reason why so many stick around especially in Chicago it is still a great place to earn a decent living.
http://www.money-rates.com/research-center/best-states-to-make-a-living/
What is left unsaid is the weakness of Illinois recovery from the Great recession and going back earlier to 2001.
Why has the economy lagged the rest of the nation for the past 15 years? To simplistic to just blame one issue like taxes but tax increases do not help small businesses.
- Grandson of Man - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 10:05 am:
Moore blew it BIGLY. Not only did the tax hike pass in 2011, and it was a flat tax hike, but the rich don’t leave when the income tax is raised. That’s just a scare tactic.
http://www.citylab.com/politics/2016/06/do-taxes-really-cause-the-rich-to-move/487835/
Kansas is a disaster, as is Oklahoma.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/education/history-of-tax-cuts-catches-up-to-oklahoma-as-state/article_ec192755-9cd7-5067-a61c-79f25ed382d4.html
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 10:08 am:
===With our 3.75% rate (which is going up), we have the 9th highest total tax burden.===
When Rauner signs the Rauner Tax, which could grow the percentage 30+% and be set at 4.99999% (just not 5%!)
How will you control yourself? Rauner signing that kinda/sorta rebukes your constant arguments.
- Amalia - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 10:11 am:
I can never take Stephen Moore seriously, because of his content which is wrong here, and because he looks so much like Mo Rocca.
- Lucky Pierre - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 10:15 am:
Total tax burden would include things like property taxes which the Speaker thinks only concerns right wingers. It would also include brilliant ideas like a 40-60% tax on soft drinks in cook county.
Rauner is about limiting taxes via property tax freezes, consolidating local governments and capping spending. Also the income tax would be temporary.
Go ahead make the case that Rauner is the one trying to increase government spending in Illinois and not the Democrats
- A guy - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 10:19 am:
When they get it “this wrong”, it’s undeserving of comment or reflection.
- wordslinger - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 10:20 am:
This grifter was a principal at Arduin, Laffer and Moore, the highly compensated outside architects of Brownback’s Kansas fiscal nincompoopery.
They also made a big score setting Rauner’s fiscal strategy in his first year. I hear the slide show they produced was nearly eighth-grade C-Level.
I guess the WT didn’t think that disclosure was relevant.
The firm now appears to be kaput. Go figure — they obviously can’t.
- Anonymous - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 10:21 am:
Flat out lies.
But here’s an idea for the future. Maybe since asking those who have been blessed with oodles of money to pay a few dollars more, instead, we should raise taxes on the poor or unemployed.
Would that bring a better result?
- Still - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 10:22 am:
I have never been impressed with Moore — and I say that as someone who generally agrees with him. He is frequently ill-prepared in his media appearances and for whatever reason was entirely passed over by the Trump administration for an appointment — after presenting himself as a “key” or “top” advisor to the campaign and transition team.
- wordslinger - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 10:34 am:
LP, you’ve got your troll toll. Go ahead and address the subject of the thread anytime now.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 10:38 am:
- Lucky Pierre -
So will the property tax freeze…
So Rauner will sign the Rauner Tax, and the “relief” will be temporary too, LOL
Other than that, you need to come to grips, and soon, the Rauner Tax is coming. Rauner will sign it. Rauner will be measured by all the damage… with a tax increase too.
I fed you, your tangent has been discussed.
- VanillaMan - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 10:53 am:
There are conservatives, then there are nutty anti-government free-market types who have run amok from facts and common sense like Moore.
Damn the facts, they’ve got snake handling gospel types rolling in the aisles speaking glossalalia and gibberish that only true believers understand.
The best governments are conservative, not Kansas, Oklahoma, Illinois or California. Don’t make governments gods or devils, or you lose your nut.
- TominChicago - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 11:53 am:
As Paul Krugman repeatedly chronicles, it is incredible that the MSM still takes Moore serious as an economist.
- Robert the 1st - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 12:03 pm:
Citing Paul Krugman; a partisan-hack by his own admission (The Conscience of a Liberal) is just too funny.
- TominChicago - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 12:07 pm:
Citing Paul Krugman; a partisan-hack by his own admission (The Conscience of a Liberal) is just too funny.
And a Nobel-prize winning economist. you seemed to have forgotten that part.
- Robert the 1st - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 12:13 pm:
And you forget that Nobel never established an economic prize. It was created by Sweden’s Central Bank in 1969, to try and give Keynesianism legitimacy.
- Arsenal - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 12:25 pm:
Oh, well, if Paul Krugman admits to being a liberal, then Moore MUST be correct that the tax hike passed in 2013 and only affected the wealthiest Illinoisans.
The door, it’s off its hinges.
- Robert the 1st - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 12:33 pm:
Moore appears to be a hack as well. I never said otherwise.
- Chicago 20 - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 12:37 pm:
Rauner demanded that the temporary income tax expire.
Supply side economics says that when taxes decrease the economy grows.
Reality shows that didn’t happen in Illinois, or in Kansas, Louisiana, New Jersey, Wisconsin or Michigan.
But what did happen is the very wealthy made more and paid less in taxes.
The trickle down theory only benefits the 1%.
- Robert the 1st - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 12:43 pm:
=The trickle down theory only benefits the 1%.=
Another beneficiary of the status quo heard from.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 12:44 pm:
===Another beneficiary of the status quo heard from.===
Rauner is the new status quo.
Keep up, please.
- Lucky Pierre - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 12:45 pm:
Except the Reagan economy was so strong across all income groups that he was reelected in a 49 state landslide
- Smitty Irving - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 1:00 pm:
LP - the “Reagan economy” was driven by deficit funded Military Keynesianism. And don’t forget he raised taxes with every budget after 1981.
- walker - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 1:06 pm:
Moore is just trying to save the credibility of extreme supply-side economists, the magical Laffer curvers, which most real world experience has proven false. Neither supply-side or demand-side solutions are stand-alone silver bullets.
In Illinois, all serious full proposals, from all sides, require both spending cuts and tax increases.
- Robert the 1st - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 1:15 pm:
Maybe we should invent a Nobel prize for being honest and reasonable… I nominate Walker.
- Chicago Cynic - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 3:28 pm:
“And you forget that Nobel never established an economic prize. It was created by Sweden’s Central Bank in 1969, to try and give Keynesianism legitimacy.”
So if Alfred Nobel didn’t establish the prize it’s meaningless? That’s just silly. And btw, they’ve given a TON of Nobel prices to conservatives including a pile of U of C profs. So the rest of that is even more silly.
I love the GOP attacks. Don’t like reality? Call it “fake news.” I’m sorry that reality and math have a decidedly liberal bias these days, but give me a break.
- Tomin - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 3:40 pm:
- Smitty Irving - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 1:00 pm:
LP - the “Reagan economy” was driven by deficit funded Military Keynesianism. And don’t forget he raised taxes with every budget after 1981.
- TominChicago - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 3:42 pm:
- Smitty Irving - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 1:00 pm:
LP - the “Reagan economy” was driven by deficit funded Military Keynesianism. And don’t forget he raised taxes with every budget after 1981.
More importantly, the economic growth of the 1980’s was a result of monetary rather than fiscal policy. Fed Chair Volker wrang inflation out the system and paved the way for economic growth. It had nothing to do with Reagan
- Lucky Pierre - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 3:55 pm:
Economic growth had nothing to do with Reagan?
Lowering the top rate that is paid by wealthy individuals and small business from 69% in 1981 to 28% in 1988 had NOTHING to do with the explosive economic growth and rising wages during his term?
Are you sating the military build up that bankrupted to Soviet Union and ended the cold war was responsible for everything?
http://federal-tax-rates.insidegov.com/d/a/Ronald-Reagan
Interesting he did raise capital gains from 23.7% to to 28% by the end of his term. There was certainly a lot of revenue to be had from that as the market exploded
http://www.cheatsheet.com/stocks/presidential-stock-market-scorecards-reagan-to-obama.html/?a=viewall
- Smitty Irving - Monday, Jun 26, 17 @ 4:09 pm:
LP - you cited the “statutory rates” … . The “effective rates” were much lower due to the deductions Reagan / Rostenkowski eliminated in 1986 (credit card interest, property taxes on rental property one owned, etc.). In 1985 the City of Springfield appointed a Commissioner who in 1983, on an income of $44 K, paid NO federal income tax because he paid $15 K in property taxes, most on his rental property.
- Chicago Cynic - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 2:13 am:
LP,
You really know nothing of macroeconomics. The point was not that Reagan had nothing to do with the 80s growth. The point was that Reagan ran up massive deficits with his military buildup and that government spending fueled the economic growth - just like John Maynard Keynes predicted. In other words, Military Keynesianism. Try to keep up.