Peter Schiff: No. I think the best thing to do is cut government spending. But I do believe that if the government is going to spend a lot of money, you should pay for it with taxes because that will do less damage to the economy than paying for it with debt and inflation. But if you’re going to raise taxes, the tax hikes shouldn’t be higher marginal taxes on upper-income earners who are already overtaxed, because that might backfire on you and you might end up slowing the economy and end up getting even less tax revenue.
If you do want to raise taxes, the best way to do it is through a consumption tax. If you’re going to increase taxes, don’t increase the marginal rate; just increase it on people who spend money, not on people who save and invest it.
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Peter Schiff is a well-known commentator appearing regularly on CNBC, TechTicker and FoxNews. He is often referred to as "Doctor Doom" because of his bearish outlook on the economy and the U.S. Dollar in particular. Peter was one of the first from within the professional investment field to call the housing market a bubble. Peter has written a book called "Crash Proof" and a follow-on called "The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets". He is the President of EuroPacific Capital, which is a brokerage specializing in finding dividend-yielding, value-based foreign stocks.
PETER SCHIFF
