Another day, another promise from someone running for president

Dave Ross Commentary – Listen: Another day, another promise from someone running for president

“We should eliminate altogether the capital gains tax, the interest income tax, the dividends tax, and the death tax.”

That’s former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty saying his plan will unleash the free market, bring back the jobs, grow the economy at 5 percent a year, and after ten years, even with lower tax rates, tax revenues will flood in, and the deficit will drop. You may say, but wait — taxes have been cut, Wall Street is drowning in money, and yet the free market continues to hibernate.

Who do we believe? It’s frustrating.

Here’s a promise from candidate Herman Cain, founder of Godfather’s Pizza, who says his White House will have a strict rule:

“Only allow small bills, three pages.”

Strength through brevity. But how do we know who’s serious, and who’s just riffing?

We don’t, because in politics, there is no real shame for being wrong.

Politicians are routinely shamed for posting too much skin, but for being dead wrong about wars and recessions — the worst that happens is they lose the next election.

But suppose the penalty for screwing up in public life was the same as the penalty for screwing up in private life? That’s right — I’m asking you to imagine a world where, if politician’s giant tax cut, or three-page-rule didn’t work, and didn’t bring the jobs back — we’d plaster their underwear pictures all over the Internet.

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