Posted on 10/17/2009 3:33:57 PM PDT by Son House
Robert Barro, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, criticizes the recently passed federal stimulus package as a "terrible piece of legislation," and calls for permanent changes to the tax structure to spur economic growth.
In a discussion with Tax Foundation Vice President for Economic Policy Robert Carroll in this week's edition of the Tax Policy Podcast, Barro strongly disapproves of both the expenditure and tax provisions within the stimulus legislation.
"What they call tax reductions in this bill are really transfer payments, particularly redistribution of income from the rich to the poor," says Barro. "I don't think it's really attractive to do something in a temporary fashion. You want to have a more stable tax structure."
Barro points to the 2003 tax cut legislation as being very positive for economic growth, and chides the current administration for blaming those policies for the current economic downturn.
"The economy did very well for the next several years after the tax cuts of 2003. And it's very unfair that Obama has blamed that program for part of the current financial collapse," Barro argues. "There's really no linkage between the tax rate cutting program of 2003 and the financial and housing collapse we've seen in recent months."
Barro also makes recommendations to lawmakers regarding long-term economic incentives to drive economic expansion.
"Abolishing the corporate income tax at the federal level I think would be very positive. It's a very poor form of taxation," says Barro. "I would make permanent the kinds of changes that were in the 2003 tax reform, including the marginal tax rate structure."
This Tax Policy Podcast can be found at http://www.taxfoundation.org/podcast/show/24350.html.
Obama is an economically illiterate demigogue who despises the country he governs, precisely for the mass wealth is enables. He welcomes the economic collapse of the United States, he just wants to blame it on the Republicans.
What's next, 2 + 2 = 4?
Obama agreed to three one-hour debates with Professor Barro, to be broadcast to the schoolchildren of America.
The President vowed, on his side, to “keep it simple”, and suggested the kids should sing the “mmm-mmmm-mmmOBama song” when Barro was talking.
>> He’ll be drummed out of Harvard like Larry Summers. <<
No, not at all. In the first place, Barro has tenure. In the second place, the Harvard Economics Department is well-known in the economics profession for a relatively conservative-libertarian slant.
No he won’t. Barro is a top drawer economist in the Chicago tradition of Friedman/Stigler.
Summers was a famous economist’s son in law (Paul Samuelson). Summers is a lightweight who relied on diversity to survive and it blew up in his face.
Barro should have gotten his Nobel Prize already. His Ricardian Equivalence concept is widely used in macroeconomics.
>> Summers was a famous economist’s son in law (Paul Samuelson). <<
Close, but not quite:
Samuelson is Summers’ uncle — the older brother of his father, Robert Summers.
Kenneth Arrow is another uncle — a brother to Larry Summers’ mother.
In my opinion, moreover, Robert Summers is the best and most useful economist of the lot — thanks to his first-rate empirical work on international comparisons of purchasing power parity.
Get rid of business and capital gains taxes. Eliminate social welfare programs disguised as tax credits. Pass a flat rate tax of 20% or so and exclude the first $10,000 from it. Stop the insanity of massive tax write-offs for homeowners which artificially drives up their prices.
Remember, not a single Republican Congressman voted for this disaster. We should run ads saying this.
Duh.
2+2=14 (for me) - 10 (off book loss that will be born by the taxpayers).
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