What’s a Katie (tm), Spot?
I’ll explain it in a moment, grasshopper, but first let’s see what Tom did to earn the award. Horner gets a big spread in the opinion section of the Star Tribune today (Sunday) to permit him roam around and think about Life Without Pawlenty. He talks about three issues that he thinks Republicans can win on. The first one he discusses is tax policy:
Minnesota has a tax system created for an economy based in manufacturing and dependent on a young population of families in their years of high consumption. Holding onto this tax system is like General Motors hanging onto tail fins. [Spot’s italics]
Okay, Tom, what do you recommend? In the very next paragraph, Horner says:
Minnesota needs a tax system that encourages businesses to innovate and create jobs. That means some business taxes should be reduced or even eliminated. But doing that leaves a revenue hole. The solution is to increase consumption taxes. And that's where too many Republicans draw the line -- because of politics. Republicans should provide leadership that acknowledges that tax reform will increase some taxes in order to reduce those that stifle economic growth and innovation. [again, Spot’s italics]
Brilliant, Tom. Take a tax base that is diminishing and rely more heavily on it.
Tom Horner must be dismissed as any kind of serious public policy commentator — if for no other reason, and there are some — because he can’t be logically consistent two paragraphs in a row.
Who does this remind you of, grasshopper?
Of course! Katie! Now we get it!
That’s right, grasshopper. The Katie (tm) is a new award given to someone who writes a piece of internally-inconsistent intellectual hackery that Katie — Katherine Kersten — would be proud to have written.
I’ll have more to say about about Horner’s take on taxes, health care, and education later.
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