The Dumb-Dumb Files

This page is for the stupid stuff people either do, say, or believe. I'm going to use "the dumb-dumb files" as a tag for posts, and since blogger added pages, I'm going to use it here, too! And feel free to make suggestions.

Dumb-Dumb #1

"Anybody who is familiar with the historical data from the IRS knows that raising income tax rates will likely actually reduce federal revenues."


Mike Pence (R-IN) on Sunday, November 7th, 2010 in an interview on "This Week with Christiane Amanpour."

According to politifact.com:

"There is no real dispute among economists that broad-based federal income tax cuts reduce revenue (except when tax rates are much higher than they are now)," said Alan D. Viard of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "Revenue is lower than it would be without the Bush tax cuts -- liberal and conservative economists are in accord on this question."


To recap, Pence said that, "Anybody who is familiar with the historical data from the IRS knows that raising income tax rates will likely actually reduce federal revenues." Actually, the historical data doesn't show that. Experts said the economic theory Pence is drawing from doesn't apply in the current situation, and an increase in tax rates would not cause tax revenues to decline. So we rate his statement False. [parenthesis not mine]

I rate it, "Duh!"