They don't need no steenking numbers

From the New York Times, a story about Senate Republicans who hate numbers. I have not read the report, but what RtO has said elsewhere makes it obvious that the conclusion is reasonable, even obvious.

The conclusion being that raising tax rates on the rich does not unduly impinge on productive investment. Not mentioned, at least in the Times report, is the threat of the rich that if the country tries to tax them, they'll just move their money offshore.

I don't doubt it. All the more reason to tax them, in my view.

The Times begins:

The Congressional Research Service has withdrawn an economic report that found no correlation between top tax rates and economic growth, a central tenet of conservative economy theory, after Senate Republicans raised concerns about the paper’s findings and wording.

The whole thing is well worth reading but especially this gem:

They also protested on economic grounds, saying that the author, Thomas L. Hungerford, was looking for a macroeconomic response to tax cuts within the first year of the policy change without sufficiently taking into account the time lag of economic policies. 

Shhh. Don't tell Mitt Romney. He thinks cutting taxes on the rich will instantly produce 12 million jobs. Even Republicans don't believe that.