HOST: Do you reform the tax code system? The president's own fiscal commission came out and said that if we reform the tax code, you could save and add a trillion dollars.
HATCH: Well, Bastiat, the great economist of the past said, the place where you've got to get revenues has to come from the middle class. That's the huge number of people that are there. So the system does need to be revamped.
I applaud Hatch for that one. That took some frickin' work. And very few will check up on his reference.
I did. And it turns out Frédéric_Bastiat is a French economist born in 1801. Hilarious.
This is how far back the "good old days" are for Orrin. And that Franc-o-phobia we used to have? Fuhhgettaboudit. The right-wing's most insidious talking point is that lower-income people don't pay income taxes (never mind every other tax they pay), so old Freddie-boy fits the argument to a 'T'. And Orrin Hatch will be one of the guys to whom Michael Bennet goes begging for a little bipartisan love on balancing the budget.
All I can say is Bennet needs to buy a clue, or just Google "Frédéric_Bastiat" on one of the internets that are so popular these days.
(Fixed some, but not all, bad gr.) |
