A Second Response To Sbvor

Sbvor said:
“Let’s skip your typical trivialities and get to the ONLY meat of the matter in your typically silly post (economists who allegedly support Obama AND his TAX PLAN):”

Trivialities? The next president may be constitutionally ineligible for the office, and you call that trivial? By the way, the things you are calling trivial are all things you brought up. Now, just because you can’t defend you arguments doesn’t make them trivial. It just means you’re not intellectually honest enough to acknowledge you don’t have an adequate response.

By the way, you asked me to show you one economist who supported Obama’s economic plan. Now you are changing it to Obama’s tax plan. There’s a significant difference in someone’s tax plan and someone’s economic plan, because the former comprises a part of the latter. You really should be consistent in what you ask for, otherwise it looks like you are trying to finagle your way out by changing what we are discussing.

Sbvor said:
“You listed, without substantiation (as usual), the following economists whom you allege support Obama:”

Quite simply, you didn’t ask for substantiation. You asked for one name and one credential. I simply went above and beyond that and gave you several. But if substantiation is all you need, here you go:

Joseph Stiglitz, 2001 Nobel laureate link
Edmund Phelps, 2006 Nobel laureate link
Dan McFadden, 2000 Nobel laureate link
Robert Solow, 1987 Nobel laureate link

Here’s a list of some of those on Obama’s economic advisory team:
Jason Furman (director of economic policy) source bio
Austan Goolsbee (senior economic policy advisor), University of Chicago tax policy expert source Wikipedia website
Karen Kornbluh (policy director) source bio Wikipedia
David Cutler, Harvard health policy expert source Wikipedia website
Jeff Liebman, Harvard welfare expert source Wikipedia website
Michael Froman, Citigroup executive source bio
Daniel Tarullo, Georgetown law professor source bio
David Romer, Berkeley macroeconomist source website
Christina Romer, Berkeley economic historian source website
Richard Thaler, University of Chicago behavioral finance expert source Wikipedia
Robert Rubin, former Treasury Secretary source Wikipedia bio
Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary source Wikipedia bio
Alan Blinder, former Vice-chairman of the Federal Reserve source Wikipedia bio website
Jared Bernstein, Economic Policy Institute labor economist source bio
James Galbraith, University of Texas macroeconomist source Wikipedia website
Paul Volcker, Chairman of the Federal Reserve 1979-1987 source Wikipedia
Laura Tyson, Berkeley international economist, Bill Clinton economic adviser source Wikipedia
Robert Reich, Berkeley public policy professor, former Secretary of Labor source Wikipedia weblog
Peter Henry, Stanford international economist source website
Gene Sperling, former White House economic adviser source Wikipedia

Since there are people who are actually advising Obama, and not just mere endorsers or supporters of him for president, then we can probably safely assume they support Obama’s economic plan, since they themselves helped create it. However, there is a link next to each of them so you can see what they have said and decide for yourself if it meets your criteria of whether they support Obama’s economic plan or not. If you can show me that every single one of these economists does not support Obama’s economic plan, then I’ll let you have your victory. Or you’re going to have to give me better definition of what you mean by “support.”

Also, have a look at the Economist study. They polled economists from the National Bureau of Economic Research. While admittedly they don’t list names, you can see that far more than one economist responded that Obama’s economic plan was better than McCain’s.

Sbvor said:“But, the question was which economists support Obama’s TAX PLAN!My research reveals that only ONE (Solow) is on record PARTIALLY supporting Obama’s tax policy. Okay, we’ve got ONE HALF of ONE economist vs. one HUNDRED economists on record as being 100% opposed to Obama’s tax plan. CLEARLY, I WIN!”

As I already noted, that wasn’t the question. And I would encourage people to look at the link provided. While it does state that these economists think Obama’s plan would be bad for the economy, curiously, there is not a single word in the whole thing about whether think they McCain’s economic plan would be good for the economy. Not a single word. Since it’s not an either/or situation, one could easily think Obama’s plan and McCain’s plan was bad for the economy. So one could easily have a Republican who absolutely thinks McCain’s plan is horrible for the economy, but because they are supporting McCain anyways because of party affiliation, sign this document stating Obama’s plan is bad for the economy. I would have much preferred to see a document stating why they thought McCain’s plan was good for the economy. I particularly like the line, “the prospect of such tax increases (referring to Obama’s) in 2010 is already a drag on the economy.” That’s right, they are saying that one of the reasons for the bad economy right now is a tax increase that may or may not go into effect in 2010. How they measure that we have no way of knowing, but they said it.

Just curious what you think you have won? But like I said, if you can show me that every single one of the economists listed, this time with citations, do not support Obama’s economic plan, then I’ll concede victory to you. But until then, you’re a bit premature.