Word: pechman
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More recently, Regan startled even his harshest critics with his proposal for the most sweeping reform of federal tax laws since World War II. Among those who have endorsed the proposal are Economist Joseph Pechman of the Brookings Institution and Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader--a following that prompted Regan to quip, "What have I done wrong?" The President has not embraced the whole package, but he did call it "the best proposal for changing the tax system that has ever occurred within my lifetime...
Instead of relying almost exclusively on spending cuts, Heller, Pechman and Schultze all proposed lists of revenue raising measures designed to shrink the 1984 deficit sharply. Each urged the Administration to postpone the third stage of the Reagan tax-cut package, which is scheduled to reduce federal income taxes by another 10% when it takes effect in July 1983. This, they said, would automatically reduce the fiscal 1984 deficit by approximately $30 billion. Such action was ruled out by Reagan at his press conference last week when he stressed that he intended to stand by his income tax package...
...board's Democrats also urged the Administration to adopt some additional revenue-raising measures. Pechman argued, for example, that doubling the federal excise tax on alcohol, gasoline and tobacco would bring in another $13 billion, and that enacting a windfall tax on decontrolled natural gas could result in anywhere from $10 billion to $20 billion more Government revenue...
...addition, Pechman offered a laundry list of tax reforms that he urged the Administration to make in order to raise the badly needed money. He argued that perhaps $6 billion could be collected simply by eliminating the deductibility of interest on consumer loans, and $3 billion to $4 billion by removing the tax-exempt status now granted to interest payments received by holders of state and local industrial development and revenue bonds. Unlike tax-exempt municipal bonds, which are usually issued to finance such projects as sewer systems and schools, industrial revenue bonds are often sold to help private developers...
...fixed mechanical way," rather than by "trusting human beings." The danger, says he, is that the gold standard would put policymakers into such a "straitjacket" that they would be unable to respond to changing economic conditions. The result: even greater instability and more frequent bouts of high unemployment. Joseph Pechman, director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution, agrees: "I think the whole idea is nonsense. The gold bugs are recommending a disastrous route for economic policy...