October 23, 2007 3:53PM

Ann Coulter of the Left: Jonathan Chait

By Chris Edwards

For those who think that it’s just conservatives, such as Ann Coulter, who are mean‐​spirited, they should check out the new book by Jonathan Chait, a senior editor of the New Republic, entitled The Big Con: The True Story of How Washington Got Hoodwinked and Hijacked by Crackpot Economics.


I managed to get through the introduction and first chapter of Mr. Chait’s book. Alas, I could read no more. Here are some of Chait’s characterizations of supply‐​side economists and supply‐​side economics–from the 1970s to the present day–in those first 44 pages:


“Pseudo‐​economists”, “cult of fanatical tax‐​cutters”, “amateurs and cranks”, “patently ludicrous ideas”, “preposterous ideas”, “theological opposition to taxation”, “ideological fanatics”, “insane”, “detachment from reality”, “extremism of their agenda”, “triumph of the extreme”, “a cult”, “quasi‐​religious”, “totalistic ideology”, “crank doctrine”, “sheer monomania”, “plain loopy”, “magical”, “sheer loons”, “deranged”, “wingnuttery”, “utterly deluded”, “crackpot economic theories”, “lunacy”, “ludicrous,” etc.


You get the idea.


Interestingly, Chait ends the first chapter arguing that “Tax rates under 40 percent simply do not have much effect on economic behavior.” Thus, he seems to be admitting that all those crackpots back in the 1970s and 1980s who cut income tax rates from 70% to the pre‐​Bush 40% might have been right after all.


Of course it’s not correct that tax rates of less than 40% don’t affect behavior. The Wall Street Journal has a front‐​page story today on the big efforts of Wal‐​Mart to reduce its effective state income tax rate of just 3.5%.


Finally, note that for Chait’s supply‐​side conspiracy theory to work, the cult would have had to include governments of every major industrial nation, because they have all cut top marginal rates since the 1970s. The top individual income tax rate across the 30 OECD countries has plunged by 26 percentage points since 1980. If that’s wingnuttery, then I’m all for it.