JACOB SULLUM: Distorting The Economy Is The Whole Point. “Distorting the economy is not, as NPR suggests, an unwanted side effect of Obama’s proposals; it is his avowed aim, because he thinks he knows how resources should be distributed better than the market does. As long as we have leaders with this kind of overblown faith in their own knowledge, wisdom, and competence, we will have ‘a tax system that’s a complex, inefficient, and loophole-riddled mess.'”