MONEY: The consequences of the new “Snooki” tax

http://biggovernment.com/dmitchell/2011/10/15/the-laffer-curve-wins-again-snooki-1-irs-0/

The Laffer Curve Wins Again: Snooki 1, IRS 0
by Dan Mitchell

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I don’t know if that’s true, but let’s give it a try. I now have an example of the Laffer Curve for the MTV audience. Best of all, the story is from USA Today.

The IRS got red-faced trying to collect the new tanning tax, burning a hole in estimates on how much the levy would bring in to federal coffers, a new report said Thursday. …Tanning tax receipts for that nine-month period totaled $54.4 million, the report found. That was below projections by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, which had estimated the tax would raise $50 million in the last three months of fiscal year 2010 and $200 million for the full 2011 fiscal year.

Let’s deconstruct the numbers from the article. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that this new “Snooki” tax (part of the awful Obamacare legislation) was going to raise about $50 million every three months.

Yet during the first nine months, the tax raised just $54.4 million, not $150 million.

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The fancy name for this behavior is “dynamic scoring”.

Bottom line is that everyone adapts their behavior to the conditions. Conditions change; behaviors change.

For politicians and bureaucrats to make predictions, that assume “static” behavior, demonstrates stupidity.

But then doesn’t that perfectly describe ALL Gooferment actions?

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