The former chair of Bush II's Council of Economic Advisors, in his manifesto, Smart Taxes: An Open Invitation to Join the Pigou Club (pdf):
"It is not a stretch to believe that more thought about an issue leads to more reliable conclusions."
Okay well, not explicitly. And in any case he does contradict this sentiment in his "Growth of Nations."
But really, read the manifesto. He's right. Reading it is like hearing Dick Cheney slam defense contractors (yeah: as if…). Given where it's coming from, it's got a lot of credibility. In addition to its plain good sense and well-founded economics, both theoretical and empirical.