America's Top Economic Performance Artist Is Really Popular With GOP Candidates

America's Top Economic Performance Artist Is Really Popular With GOP Candidates

by Zach Carter at the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/13/stephen-moore-economist_n_6865846.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

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Man. For a minute there, it looked like Republicans were getting serious about this whole income inequality thing. We had Jeb Bush calling it "the defining issue of our time" (OK, he used the phrase "opportunity gap," but you get the idea), and Ted Cruz and Rand Paul lamenting how much worse it's gotten lately.

Since Hillary Clinton has a real rift with the Democratic base on economic policy, and struggles to speak coherently about it, this new GOP populism sounded like it could make the 2016 election, maybe, like, actually interesting.

Ha, never mind! On Friday, Politico ran a depressing profile of Stephen Moore -- a professional right-wing economy talker best known for advocating tax cuts for the wealthy and being constantly wrong. Like John McCain recommending a bombing raid, Moore has a policy prescription for every economic problem: more tax cuts for the rich. And as Politico's Darren Samuelsohn reports, it turns out that Moore is being courted by just about everybody on the GOP presidential circuit as a potential adviser -- wining and dining with Cruz, Paul, Bush and Scott Walker. Moore hasn't decided where he wants to go, but as Samuelsohn notes, he sees a glitzy gig with a political campaign as the perfect pinnacle to his career in economic policy.

For those who don't take Moore seriously, that career has been really fun to follow. He once compared raising the capital gains tax to shooting people who are good at dancing. He helped craft Herman Cain's infamous "9-9-9" tax plan. After people starting making fun of it, Moore suggested swapping out one of the 9s.





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