Platypus Economics with Justin Wolfers
@platypuseconomics
Lemme ’splain: calling it a “big beautiful bill” doesn’t make the maths prettier. If you cut taxes and don’t cut spending, the deficit goes up. That’s not ideology. That’s just arithmetic wearing sensible shoes.
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Politicians love visible gestures. Economists ask the annoying follow-up: does it work? On gas tax holidays, the answer was basically no then, and no now.
A gas tax holiday talks about 18.4¢ while ignoring the $1.50 problem. That's politics, not policy. And half of it likely goes straight to oil company profits. Congress knows this. Some just hope you don't.
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