My rogues gallery is full of hack writers. Welcome Greg Mankiw to the pantheon! Former CEA to Bush Jr. and current Romney advisor, Mankiw penned an especially hackish column today. He writes "Economists debate whether higher taxation in France and other European nations is the cause of the reduced work effort and incomes there."

I'd take Germany's performance over the U.S.'s. Also, towards the end of Clinton's onerous tax regime, wages rose thanks to economic growth and a tight labor market. The budget was balanced. Then we got the wasteful Bush tax cuts and the crappy Bush years. They weren't more crappy because of the wealth effect of the housing boom.