semantic distinction that he s making between spending in the tax code and spending outside of the tax code. tax economists don t make this distinction at all. if you give someone a tax break, the tax economist believes that s spending. the treasury department counts that as spending. paul ryan don t say that s spending. they only say it s spending when we write a check to somebody, right? so what he failed to do and what he s been promising to do for five years now is get rid of all the tax spending in the tax code, all of these special deductions, and then use that to lower the rate. that is precisely what we did not do with this bill. so when he talks about spending, remember, he s very closely defining the word spending. but let me go back to something that megan murphy said about 401(k)s. i want to add to that. in addition to the fact that very few in america, about half of americans even have access to some sort of pension or 401(k), all fund managers talking about the kinds of
seen for the past three months, we re talking about three years to get back to what would be normal, even at this pace. so, you know, we still have a long way to go. you know, it s good we re growing, but it s still very, very slow relative to what we should be seeing. what would you like to see in the way of policies to really move the needle on this economy, second half? well, the ones i always like are taxes, trade, less regulation and budgetary responsibility. and so let me start with taxes. i think there s a lot we can do on the tax front to get things moving again. i think we have had a tax policy that s discouraged investment. one of the things that we know is that business investment has not been what it should be. and the question is how do we get that going again. most people who have looked at this, tax economists, most people who think about this, both at a theoretical level and also by looking at the numbers, suggest the best way to get things going is to allow full
detainee swap. well, i think this is a reflection of great dissatisfaction with the president s lack of leadership internationally. you know, the constitution vests the president with principle responsibility for foreign affairs, and yet this president for five and a half years has ignored the subject, in effect. so i think when people understand the implications of lack of american leadership overseas for their own daily lives, that s what you re seeing reflected in these polls. they understand, there s a direct, palpable relationship between our foreign policy in the middle east, and energy prices. and how it relates to the president s domestic energy policies, as well. and i think people view foreign policy, frankly, as a surrogate for presidential leadership. and they see obama as weak, feckless, inattentive, indecisive, and i think that has an impact. i think you can see it in those poll results. i m glad you mentioned energy prices.
economist, fox news contributor. thanks for joining us. pleasure. kick off with you, steve, on this new irs revelation and what darrell issa is trying to do. do you think koskinen is going to bite? i don t know, but i will say this. there s no good resolution for the white house of this controversy right now. i mean, when it comes to the documents that were destroyed, either there was kind of complete incompetencies at the irs or a kind of willful obstruction of justice. and neither of those outcomes is very favorable to the white house. and put this also in the context, maria, of the fact that the irs plays a big, big role in the obamacare oversight. the ones who are supposed to verify the incomes of people, make sure that people are eligible. i think a lot of americans are scratching their heads and saying, wait a minute, is this the agency that should be overlooking our health care records? what do you think, tony? look, the fact that the big critique of this irs targeting