Yesterday morning,
C-Span’s Washington Journal, a viewer call-in program, had Stephen Moore as a
guest. A Libertarian economist, Moore has worked, at times, for the Heritage
Foundation and the Cato Institute. He founded the Club for Growth, but after
being ousted, was accused of stealing the group’s mailing lists.
At one point in his C-Span appearance,
Moore railed against the inheritance tax. His father, he claimed, had put “sweat
equity” into building a business for many decades and now, when he died, his estate
would be taxed at a rate exceeding fifty percent. Surely, no sane human being would
disagree with his (Moore’s) efforts to abolish this horrendous burden.
Somehow, Moore
failed to mention that the first $5,430,000 of any inheritance is currently
exempt from federal taxation, or that a parent may gift $14,000 per year to
each of his/her children without any tax consequences. But Moore, as it turns
out, is a professional liar. In 2014, Moore responded to a Paul Krugman column,
claiming that economic growth in low-tax states was superior to growth in high-tax
states. Moore’s piece was first published in the Kansas City Star, but after
some investigation, when the paper discovered that Moore’s figures were
entirely bogus, the Star resolved never to publish him again.
Yet, somehow,
C-Span, in its endless quest to appear non-partisan, found him credible enough
to give the man a forty-five minute platform.
Are you kidding
me?
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