Desperate times call for "drastic" measures, and economist Ben Stein on Newsmax TV said it is time for the U.S. government to suspend all taxes, the national deficit be damned.
"We need active government fiscal intervention, not monetary policy, we have plenty of money floating around the system, banks are solid," Stein told Monday's "Greg Kelly Reports." "What we need is a gigantic fiscal stimulus and I would suggest something right away: No more taxes for the rest of the year.
"For now on, we're not collecting any more taxes this year."
Sure, it will add to the national debt, Stein said, but the government is going to have to help Americans through this to keep the economy running.
"We're not going to worry about how much that adds to the deficit," Stein told host Greg Kelly. "The deficit is already enormous. This is a true crisis. Let's tell the American people, 'you don't have to pay any more taxes; you can go out and spend' – or you can stay home and spend."
Stein added "something drastic needs to be done."
"The crash we've had in the last couple of weeks – especially [Monday] – is enough to set anyone's teeth on edge, and it's just scaring the hell out of Americans," he continued. "Scaring us to death, and this country cannot survive this kind of fear for very long. No country could survive this level of fear for very long."
Stein added a rejection of President Donald Trump "saying the stock market will take care of itself."
"The president has to pay some damn attention to it and stop getting so silly about it," he added.
The tax stoppage Stein calls for includes income, inheritance, corporate, and sales taxes.
"Let's get the government in there with both feet to help everybody out," he said.
And while Stein rebuked the president for causing fear, he piled it on harder than anyone.
Without mitigating the fear, it can "drive down the economy, drive it into the ground, just pump it into the ground, bury it dead," Stein concluded.
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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