Conservative economist Ben Stein said Monday that he would eat Bill O’Reilly’s shoe if the Fox News host could prove raising taxes on millionaires actually hurts the economy.
O’Reilly began his “Talking Points” segment by asserting that the economy was better off when President Barack Obama was on vacation.
“You know that everything I said in that ‘Memo’ was true,” O’Reilly told Stein.
“Absolutely not,” Stein replied. “Almost every part of it is wrong. Except the part that I think it better if he’s on vacation because he works terribly hard and I think he deserves a vacation.”
O’Reilly went on to argue that raising taxes on the rich would make the recession worse.
“That isn’t true,” Stein said. “There is no correlation, Mr. O’Reilly, between taxes rates on millionaires and people above that level, billionaires, and the growth of the economy… Higher taxes have historically correlated with more growth.”
“Mr. O’Reilly, sir, there is no correlation of raising taxes and unemployment,” he added later. “If you can show it to me, I’ll eat your shoe.”
Watch this video from Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, broadcast Aug. 22, 2011.
