Wayne Hoffman; wrong again

Wayne Hoffman's opinion in the Statesman on Sunday is one of his worst yet. First off, he's making the same tired Republican argument that every problem calls for tax cuts. Economy strong and tax revenue flowing? Need to cut taxes. Economy weak and tax revenue not flowing? Need to cut taxes.

There seems to be no issue, per Hoffman and his ilk, that will not benefit from tax cuts.

But this sentence was the corker.

Historically, cuts to national income tax rates have helped boost money flowing into the federal treasury.

Uh, Wayne, sorry, that's been tried at least twice, with disastrous results. It's known as supply-side economics, aka Reaganomics, aka voodoo economics.

Both Ronaldus Magnus and George Bush managed to cut taxes, and under both tax revenues tanked and the deficit ballooned. Reagan and Bush together added more to the national debt than all other presidents combined, and if not quite that much given the recent stimulus spending under Obama, then certainly before that stimulus spending.

Hoffman also wrote

Cuts at the state level should meet with similar and perhaps more dramatic results. (emphasis mine)

Now, I realize that I've made some unsupported assertions in this blog, but I'm just a blogger. Hoffman has a weekly opinion piece in the Statesman. Shouldn't he have to cite some precedent or some facts to support his assertions? Should? Based on what, Wayne?

I also take issue with him comparing our tax policies to those in Nevada and Wyoming. Nevada has gambling and Wyoming has mineral extraction taxes to offset income tax revenue. Idaho is not so blessed.

I do like one implied but probably unintended point he made. He says

Idaho's tax structure, then, can only be viewed as a real impediment to the state's efforts to get out of a recession.

Well, okay. Wayne's party has had a lock on power plenty long enough to fix this, and haven't. Any problems with our tax structure are squarely the fault of Idaho Republicans.