Douthat’s Daily Howler
By What amazes me more than anything else is that nobody seemed to think that Douthat’s ridiculous claim that the median American family of four makes $95K was even worthy of being checked out.
Not that the rest of the column by the guy who wrote a book about how he didn’t learn anything at Harvard and continues to prove it every week is any prize either. The idea that the United States to too diverse to have federal taxes reach 23% of GDP fails to grasp what an outlier the United States is. Even when state taxes are considered, taxes could rise significantly in the U.S. and still be on the lower range of liberal democracies. It’s not just Scandinavia that has combined more developed welfare state with a good standard of living and it’s silly to pretend otherwise.
…more data showing that tax rates could rise substantially in the United States and still be well below the typical OCED country.