Writing about politics is tricky business because it invites ad hominem rebuttals. This article offers an accessible and persuasive account of Modern Monetary Theory and then proceeds to a tirade, whether or not fair or supported, against the author's political betes noirs. That animus undercuts the willingness of the most important readers to accept the MMT lesson (and all readers to wonder why that explanation is there).

The war on the IRS does not depend on paygo. If we need to tax for any reason, we should tax fairly and effectively. If the people we want to tax are fighting to have us not tax them, then there's reason to push back. But MMT has nothing to say about that. The article is thus a bit of a hippogator.