ESI Senior Advisor Joel Naroff authors a weekly column for the Philadelphia Inquirer. This past week he wrote about the economic distortions or omissions in political messaging in the article, Keep a Healthy Skepticism about Political Ads.
Unfortunately, politicians don’t talk about the idea that their spending and taxation decisions require trade-offs. But they do. On the spending side, the issue is obvious. If you build an aircraft carrier, hire another firefighter, or provide health care, that money is not available for purchasing other goods or services.
The issue of raising or lowering taxes is no different. Some politicians argue that taxes should never be increased. Does this make sense? Only as long as it is recognized that not increasing taxes has consequences.