Tom Daschle and Lexus Economics
Equations worth parsing.

Mr. Levin is president of the Landmark Legal Foundation
February 12, 2001 9:00 a.m.

enate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle worries that a millionaire who currently pays $360,000 in

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federal income taxes will only pay $325,000 if George W. Bush's tax plan is enacted. And he worries further that the millionaire might use his $35,000 windfall to buy a Lexus. Well, since Daschle seems to believe that the Lexus is the official United States currency, let's examine federal spending in this light.

The federal budget is about $1.9 trillion per year.

“Thegovernment can buy a new Lexus for over 54 million Americans every year.”

That means the federal government can buy a new Lexus for over 54 million Americans each and every year. Let me put it another way: The U.S. government could buy a new Lexus for nearly every man, woman and child in Great Britain each and every year.

Let's take the projected surplus over the next 10 years, which is $5.6 trillion. With that surplus, the federal government could buy a new Lexus for 160 million Americans. And it could buy those 160 million new Lexus automobiles without touching one dime of projected federal spending. If we exclude children, that's a new Lexus for virtually every adult in the United States.

Since Daschle is chauffeured around town in a taxpayer-subsidized Cadillac limousine (or is it a Lincoln?), this Lexus stuff is all foreign to him anyway.