Over on my Facebook fan page a reader writes, with regard to my most recent post on Herman Cain: “I don’t doubt anything you say, but I care more about a candidate’s policies than his ability to prognosticate. Cain is the only one talking loudly and clearly about the FAIR Tax and the repeal of the 16th Amendment.”
For one thing, Ron Paul has been talking for years about repealing the 16th Amendment, but he is not interested in replacing one horrific tax with another. He is in the business of repealing taxes, period. The only way this monster is going to be cut down to size is if serious, radical changes are made, including repealing taxes and not replacing them with anything. Any other approach is just another shell game, another example of D.C. fakery. “Tax reform” is always and everywhere a D.C. trick. It is plain old tax reduction we want.
Anyway, here’s what I wrote in reply: “I am not asking him to tell me who will win the World Series in 2045. I am asking him to understand what makes the economy go up and down, something I would expect him to know if he wants to be president. I am asking him to be able to perceive that the economy is about to tank in less than a week. I am asking him to realize that the housing market is ridiculously out of whack. If he can’t see these things, how can he possibly know what the causes — much less the cures — of these cycles are?”