The question is, why should Mark J. Perry care what a Blog for Arizona writer has to say? Perry is an econ prof at the University of Michigan’s Flint campus, and he writes on the policy blog of the American Enterprise Institute, one of the longest standing conservative think tanks in the country. (Yeah, it says it’s nonpartisan, but with senior fellows like John Bolton, Lynne Cheney, Newt Gingrich and Richard Perle, there’s no question it bends way to the right.) Blog for Arizona is a bunch of dedicated, hyper-intelligent writers scattered around Arizona with no big names, and without $45 million a year in revenue, which is what AEI brought in during its 2013 fiscal year.
Apparently Perry does care. When Bob Lord, a BfA writer, challenged Perry on one of his recent pieces, he went kinda ballistic. First Perry asked Lord to make a minor correction, which Lord did, then he had someone he referred to as a “colleague” send what he called a “devastating critique” in the form of a rambling, invective-laced comment. The “colleague” is a frequent AEI commenter who uses the handle “famous fox.”
Perry published a piece titled, New CBO study shows that ‘the rich’ don’t just pay their ‘fair share,’ they pay almost everybody’s share. The headline pretty much says it all. According to Perry, the rich pay more than their fair share of taxes, and it’s those lucky people on the bottom 60% of the income ladder who are getting off too easy tax-wise.
Lord answered with a long, detailed post titled, Anatomy of Deceit: American Enterprise Institute Analysis of CBO Study. Lord argues that Perry cooked the numbers to exaggerate the tax gap between the rich and everyone else, though he admitted the rich pay a lot of taxes. Why? Because they’re rich. And if income inequality keeps growing and the rich amass an even greater share of the country’s wealth, they’ll pay even more, because they’ll be even richer.
Bob Lord, by the way, is a tax lawyer who writes extensively on income inequality, so he’s no stranger to this argument. He’s also an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and has written op eds which have appeared in the LA Times, the AZ Republic, USA Today and elsewhere. He’s got the knowledge and the chops to challenge Perry’s numbers and his conclusions.
Lord, who loves a good fight, emailed Perry a link to his post, and Perry responded. Lord details the back-and-forth in his follow-up post, Anatomy of Deceit, Part II: A Cowardly Writer Responds Through a Shill.
“The pettiness of Perry asking for such a small correction shows I nailed him with my analysis,” Lord told me. And Perry passing off the job of answering Lord to commenter “famous fox” rather than engaging in the discussion himself? “Perry realized he got into it too deep,” Lord said.
I love this story for lots of reasons. Blog for Arizona was my home before I moved to the Weekly, and I stay in regular contact with the feisty gang of writers, so I love it when their posts make an impact and strike a nerve. Citizen journalism is alive and well in Arizona. And it’s always a pleasure to see the big guys on the right, many of them bullies by nature, throw a temper tantrum when they’re challenged, especially when the challenger is someone who should “know his place.”
This article appears in Dec 4-10, 2014.
Are you sure the “public” even pays attention to the skirmishes? So AEI is all lefties?
I find liberal business ownersw and conservative liberals.
Can’t we all just get along?
In the noted blog I see, once again the military budget was the chosen example of an excessive taxpayer burden. What the learned writer is implying is that the military budget should be eliminated altogether and I couldn’t agree more. Just imagine how much better Tucson would be without DM or the National Guard and Reserve units within the community? No jet noise, no trucks for emergency transport as we recently saw in Phoenix or even Toys For Tots. But then I’m not directly addressing the issue which makes me one of those despised characters who doesn’t resort to name calling like those you, Davey boy are so proud to be associated with.
And once the rich have been taxed into obscurity whose money will you come after? We all know how that went in Europe eighty years ago.
I always enjoy Bob Lord’s writing. It’s well reasoned and well researched.
@Mr. Simpson:”But then I’m not directly addressing the issue which makes me one of those despised characters who doesn’t resort to name calling like those you, Davey boy are so proud to be associated with.”
Uh, calling Dave, “davey boy” is not calling names?
Conservatives have skewed perception.
No, Davey boy is a term of endearment. Calling him a liar would be name calling. Or calling you stupid.
You’re on a roll, Mr. Simpson. Keep it up.
Yeah my favorite thing to watch is lawyers crying about the government stealing money from the working class.
The Clintons valued Bill’s old underwear at $3 a pair when they gave them to the Salvation Army. Maybe they weren’t Bill’s at all?
Gotta love them.
I would like to see examples of : “Rich being taxed into obscurity” as opposed to being screwed by their competitors or just being poor businessmen. They will always be able to find, stooges or minions ( despicable businessmen in waiting), who see themselves as Captain America to kiss their behinds and defend them, (as they hope to be one someday). Then they can “Reserve the right” to ignore the rights of anyone who wants to get into heaven easier than a camel trying to get thru the eye of a needle. There is a place in Dantes Inferno for the greedy, glutenous and corporate. A country club for the damned.
…and the jealous
ZKen, that was mighty creative. Unlike you, I would love to see ALL the rich taxed into obscurity. Imagine the world where there were no longer any rich people to tax, no easy sources of additional “redistribution”, no mattresses in which to hide money. We would ALL be equally poor, or rich {depending on the new IRS code} except now there would be no more money for federally funded programs. There would only be a country club for the damned…..all caddies and no duffers.
After considering the favorites of both of you….I find the current situation much better.
RatT, I agree with you even though we have no real choice in the present. I figure since these hypotheticals are popular I thought I’d carry it to the next level, give the liberals EVERYTHING they want. All the money, all the welfare, all the immigrants they want and anything else they want to whine about, except my Bill of Rights. Anything and everything, no questions asked; just take, take, take. The silence afterward, hopefully could be deafening.
The best retort to the argument, “the rich pay more taxes” is, “slaves, who work 3 jobs, can’t afford to pay taxes.”
Why is Perry employed at a university that the public created and supports? isn’t that hypocritical?
Bob Lord makes the world a better place. What does Perry do?