One of the actions that the Heritage Foundation has taken recently to cement its shift from conservative think tank to right-wing political bludgeon was to bring on as its chief economist Stephen Moore, a former Wall Street Journal editorial writer who is fluent in Tea Party dogma.
In a speech to the Tea Party Patriots convention today, Moore did not disappoint. He advocated eliminating the departments of Education, Energy and Commerce and burning the entire tax code in a bonfire and replacing it with a regressive flat tax or national sales tax. As a starting point he suggested, “Let’s make the entire south of America, south of the Mason-Dixon line, let’s make it one gigantic income-tax free zone.”
Moore further displayed his preference for politics over policy when he recounted a meeting he had with congressional Republicans earlier this week at which he told them, “Whatever question you are asked, on whatever subject it is – Ukraine, the Middle East, what’s happening in social policy – the first answer is, ‘Well, of course we have to repeal Obamacare.’”
Finally, Moore said that he was “sick” of “the class warfare of the left.”
“You know, it’s interesting, in America there’s only one group you can legally discriminate against in America anymore: rich people,” he said.
