That Time NPR Said Gary Johnson's Economic Plan Was Best of the Bunch
In 2012, "Planet Money" put forward a six-plank "no-brainer economic platform" for growth and fairness. Johnson scored best on it - then and now.
During the 2012 election, the folks at NPR's Planet Money show created what they called a "no-brainer economic platform" built of six planks that had been vetted by economists across the ideological spectrum. From a Reddit summary of that plan:
1) Remove tax loopholes, specifically tax breaks for employer funded healthcare and mortgage interest for creating market distortions and acting as a de-facto regressive tax 2) Completely legalize marijuana 3) Eliminate corporate tax 4) Implement consumer tax 5) Eliminate income and payroll tax and replace it with a consumption-based tax. 6) All economists except the libertarian (citing the same reasons as Gary, complexity) agreed that carbon should be taxed (anything with empirically proven negative externalities).
They said that none of the candidates were supporting any of them, except Gary Johnson, who supported 5/6 (all but 6). They also noted his low support and credited it to the fact that these policies just sounded bad and hard to fit on a bumper sticker.
Planet Money just re-released the original broadcast, which you can access here or by clicking below.
It's right around the 30-minute mark that the hosts point out that Gary Johnson scored better that either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney did. Fast-forward four years and Johnson still scores better than his new set of rivals (and is still totally against a carbon tax despite what you may have heard). And still has lower support than either the Dem or the Rep.
Hat Tip: The commenter known as "Pay Up, Palin's Buttplug!" in this thread.