The virtue of selfishness

The poisonous wheezes of Ayn Rand's most powerful disciple are gathering into clouds: Alan Greenspan supports a fundamental shift to a consumption tax. Why is it that whenever someone posits that a tax policy supports "growth", I'm thinking that poor people are gonna get screwed?

This news comes at the same time that Krugman tears down Greenspan's credentials as a "non-partisan font of wisdom":

When Mr. Greenspan made his contorted argument for tax cuts back in 2001, his reputation made it hard for many observers to admit the obvious: he was mainly looking for some way to do the Bush administration a political favor. But there's no reason to be taken in by his equally weak, contorted argument against reversing those cuts today.

To put Mr. Greenspan's game of fiscal three-card monte in perspective, remember that the push for Social Security privatization is only part of the right's strategy for dismantling the New Deal and the Great Society. The other big piece of that strategy is the use of tax cuts to "starve the beast."