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Robert Reich tells us:

Were it not for their economic stresses, Americans wouldn’t be receptive to abolishing the Fed and the IRS, or believe that government and big business were conspiring against them, or turn isolationist. Business leaders should be standing up to this dangerous idiocy,

I guess if you call something dangerous idiocy, that ends the conversation. OK, he wins.

5 Responses to “Stand Up to This Dangerous Idiocy!”

  1. Harry says:

    I reread that passage several times, parsing it trying to see a coherent point. My guess is that he was referring to his straw men that subsume the tea party, and that he did not want to engage in a productive discussion.

    For example, nobody wants to abolish the IRS. Somebody has to collect federal taxes. Nobody, including the late George Washington, argued that there should be no federal taxes.

    Now, abolishing the Federal Reserve is a much more complicated question. Mr. Reich elides that with abolishing the IRS. But even then, in normal discourse, nobody who knows what the federal reserve is asks

    for its sudden abolition. There are plenty of economic heavyweights,
    including the late Milton Friedman, who have argued that the Fed should act differently. Straw man number two, in the span of two words.

    Having no argument and having attempted to psychoanalyze his imagined opponents, he calls the rest of us idiots.

    Is this what Robert Reich thinks is persuasive?

  2. Harry says:

    And while we are at it, how does Robert Reich get to accuse anybody for being a protectionist? He has been a big protectionist for his entire public career. Maybe he has studiously avoided saying,”I am for protectionism,” because he knows he will be jumped on, but he is a “fair trader,” not a free trader. This is a fact, and his implication that we are idiotic protectionists is unvarnished hypocrisy. He is not an idiot. He is a skilled hypocritical sophist.

    Nearly two years ago I saw him remind Larry Kudlow, “Don’t forget the[Keynsean] multiplier!”

    These are the sorts of things that quickly disappear down the memory hole, like Henry Kaufmann’s prediction of the outlook for interest rates in 1982.

  3. Speedmaster says:

    It’s sad and disturbing that Reich is apparently an educated whom people listen to.

  4. Michael says:

    Harry, the “Fair Tax” claims to be able to abolish the IRS. Unfortunately it doesn’t, just shifts it to businesses as I understand it.

  5. Rod says:

    Those who want to abolish the IRS really want to abolish the income tax on the grounds that it requires one to file a return and declare that it is correct according to one’s best knowledge and belief, under penalty of perjury. Instead, some people believe it would be better to have the IRS give you a tax bill based on a simplified “fair tax,” so after one paid it, there would be no further fear of having made a false declaration of income.

    Robert Reich is a dwarf. But which one? Dopey? Doc D. Warf, PhD?

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