Stephen Moore, one of President Trump’s nominees for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, has a history of adopting self-proclaimed “radical” views on the economy and government.
CNN’s KFile reviewed several of Moore’s speeches and radio appearances and found that he supported eliminating corporate and federal income taxes and called the 16th Amendment that created the income tax the “most evil” law passed in the 20th century.
{mosads}”What is the income tax rate in Texas and Florida,” Moore said. “Zero. There is no income tax. Why can’t we have no income tax on the federal level. Let’s get rid of the damn income tax and do taxes like we do in Texas and Florida. So Texas and Florida have no income tax,” Moore said in 2015.
Moore has called for scrapping the Departments of Labor, Energy and Commerce as well as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB). He also questioned the need for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Education and said as recently as last year he does not see a need for a minimum wage.
Moore responded to CNN that he doesn’t want to abolish the minimum wage.
The report could add to the bipartisan skepticism about Moore’s nomination that mushroomed last month when Trump tapped him to serve on the Fed. Lawmakers have expressed concerns over his partisan defenses of Trump’s economic policies and criticism of Fed chairman Jerome Powell, who he called one of Trump’s “worst appointments.”
“There’s no bigger swamp in Washington than the Federal Reserve Board,” Moore said in a February interview posted on Vimeo. “It’s filled with hundreds of economists who are worthless, who have the wrong model in their mind. They should all be, they should all be fired and they should be replaced by good economists.”
“I spoke to the President last week about this and he was extremely upset that he had, I think made — it was one of his worst political appointments — and now he’s stuck with the guy for, I think he’s under a four- or five-year appointment,” he added, referring to Powell.
A staunch capitalist, Moore also said in an interview for Michael Moore’s 2009 film “Capitalism: A Love Story,” that he valued capitalism over democracy.
“Capitalism is a lot more important than democracy,” Moore said. “I’m not even a big believer in democracy. I always say that democracy can be two wolves and a sheep deciding on what to have for dinner. Look, I’m in favor of people having the right to vote and things like that. But there are a lot of countries that have the right to vote that are still poor. Democracy doesn’t always lead to a good economy or even a good political system.”
Moore also made similar comments on several other shows.
“I believe in free market capitalism and representative government. It is what has made America the greatest nation and the most prosperous nation on earth,” Moore responded to CNN’s KFile.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.