This has not been a good week for Rand Paul. He got his clock cleaned in a faceoff with Chris Christie during Thursday’s debate, and now he’s gone on Fox News and proven how completely out of touch with the average American he truly is.
Speaking to Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, the Kentucky Senator was asked to defend his flat tax plan, Paul declared that income inequality in the United States is caused by some people working harder than others.
Sure, because we all know that a factory worker who has to bend, lift, and stretch all day, sometimes carrying items of great weight, doesn’t work nearly as hard as a stock broker on Wall Street who sits in front of a computer all day.
But let’s give Dr. Paul the rope and allow him to hang himself:
“The thing is, income inequality is due to some people working harder and selling more thing. If people voluntarily buy more of your stuff, you’ll have more money.”
At which point I’m pretty sure Chris Wallace wanted to do an obligatory facepalm, but he maintained his composure and asked:
“Doesn’t your plan massively increase income inequality?”
Paul’s completely incorrect response was:
“It’s a fallacious notion to say, ‘Oh, rich people get more money back in a tax cut.’ If you cut taxes 10 percent, 10 percent of a million is more than 10 percent of a thousand dollars. So, obviously, people who pay more in taxes will get more back.”
An analysis by the Tax Foundation found that under Paul’s reverse Robin Hood tax plan, households earning more than $1 million per year would see their incomes rise by 13 percent. Households earning between $50,000 and $75,000 per year, meanwhile, would see their income rise only by 3 percent. In other words, income inequality would actually increase under a Paul presidency.
Then Paul compounded the problem with his logic by saying:
“We all end up working for people who are more successful than us. And that’s a good thing, that more money will be back in the economy.”
Now I don’t claim to be an economist, but I did learn in college economics class that what Rand Paul is proposing is nothing short of what my grandfather called “horsefeathers.” Rand Paul is up to his eyes in horsefeathers.
This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.