Individual 1's pick for the Federal Reserve, Stephen Moore, has already been exposed as woefully unqualified for the job when it come to intelligence, economic understanding, credentials, experience—pretty much the whole ball of wax of necessities for a governor of the nation's central banking system. Now it turns out he's a tax cheat, to the tune of more than $75,000, and was partially responsible for one of the most disastrous economic experiments of the new century: Kansas.
There's a tax lien against Moore in Montgomery County, Maryland, for the more than $75,000 he owes in taxes and penalties. Moore's spouse, Anne Carey, says that the this wasn't Moore trying to defraud the federal government, but a "mistake" he made when filing his 2014 taxes in which he accidentally deducted child support payments to a former wife. So the guy who can't properly fill out his own taxes is now up for a seat on the Fed. Sure. It's the Trump administration. Why the hell not.
As for what's the matter with Kansas, yeah, Moore. He was instrumental in shaping the radical tax cuts plan former Gov. Sam Brownback implemented that resulted in years of serious budget shortfalls. He is a long-time friend and collaborator with Art Laffer, the economist credited with Brownback's disaster rooted in the many-times disproven "trickle-down," "supply side" theories that say deep tax cuts will save the world, with a resultant path of extreme austerity that punishes all the people who the rich fucks theorizing about all this want to see suffer.
In 2012, Moore and Laffer wrote "cutting taxes can have a near immediate and permanent impact, which is why we have advised Oklahoma, Kansas and other states to cut their income tax rates if they want the most effective immediate and lasting boost to their states’ economies." For that sage advice, Moore received $75,000 from the Brownback administration. He then went on to staunchly defend the disastrous tax cuts, including in a 2014 (when Brownback was in a re-election race) article in The Kansas City Star that was so full of false information about job data the paper had to publish a column repudiating it and it ended his publishing invitation at the paper.
"I wouldn't let Stephen Moore within 100 yards of my enemy's piggy bank, let alone the Federal Reserve," said Annie McKay, president and CEO of Kansas Action for Children. Her advocacy group helped achieve the repeal of Brownback's tax cuts in 2017. She said that Moore’s "voice was lent to the Kansas experiment and stayed with it right up until the ship sunk."
Given that the ship of state is teetering right now under the substantial weight of Trump, seems like Moore is not the guy who should be getting a 14-year term messing with the nation's piggy bank.