Sunday, March 22, 2009

Economists gone Wild!

Check out the once serious Robert Frank in todays NY Times.

Here is the summary:

Bush deficits bad (because private citizens spent money on stuff they wanted).

Obama deficits good ('cause the government will spend the money for us).

(You may think I am distorting the article. I think this is a fair summary. Please read it and make up your own mind)

In fact, speaking of the Obama deficit Frank says "If anything, it may need to be even larger"

And here's Bob on how to pay off the accumulated debt:

"there are many ways to pay down debt without requiring painful sacrifices. A $2 tax on each gallon of gasoline, for example, would generate more than $100 billion in additional revenue a year. Europeans, who pay more than $2 a gallon in gasoline taxes, have adapted by choosing more efficient cars — and they appear no less satisfied with them."

Yikes!!!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This phony thinks a $2 tax on gasoline wouldn't be a "painful" burden for the average American...how out of touch do you have to be for your column to appear in the New York Times?

Anonymous said...

I live in a one dimensional world and actually have a gas money tree in my back yard, so the price of gas doesn't really effect my other [gov't revenue generating] spending.

Once we all get more fuel efficient cars (as Bob suggests), does the $2/gal tax still generate $100B/year?