Grover Norquist on the ‘Make-Believe Energy Sector’ and How to Legitimately Reduce Your Taxes

American Thought Leaders - A podcast by Jan Jekielek

“When you subsidize something, you hide the cost to consumers. So they purchase more of it than they want to, than they meant to. More people will make it, but there’s less real demand for it … All subsidies and taxes turn prices into lies.”In this episode, I’m joined by Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform. In a time of soaring inflation and economic hardship, we sat down to discuss what Americans can do to legitimately reduce their taxes.“Consider moving to a state that doesn’t have an income tax or that has a single-rate tax,” says Mr. Norquist. “New York City: city and state personal income tax? About 14 percent-plus. Move to Miami: state and city income tax? Zero.”How do corporate income taxes, subsidies, and bail-outs impact the economy? And what can the federal government learn from individual states about how to formulate its tax policy?“Governments shouldn’t fix recessions. They should step out of the way, reduce taxes, reduce regulations, let prices reassert themselves … And as happened in 1921, and earlier ones, short recessions fix themselves quickly if everybody’s allowed to reallocate their resources, their time, switch jobs, and so on. But if the government says, well, here’s how we fix things—that’s how we got into the problem in the first place,” says Mr. Norquist.