I checked into a video of Arthur Laffer, he of the curve, rocking the kids at a Young America’s Foundation event. You should watch it too.
I didn’t know this, but Art Laffer is quite the after-dinner speaker. For instance, he started with this joke:
I went into a bookstore on the way here and asked the owner sitting behind the desk if he had the new Trump book in yet.
Owner: Get the hell out of here and never come back!
Laffer: Yes, that’s the name of the book.
Good lord. And Laffer is supposed to be a dull economist!
For those of you that don’t know, Art Laffer is famous for the Laffer Curve, of revenue against tax rates. He argues that there is a sweet spot at some tax rate that maximizes revenue for the government. From La Wik:
The Laffer curve was popularized in the United States with policymakers following an afternoon meeting with Ford Administration officials Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld in 1974, in which Arthur Laffer reportedly sketched the curve on a napkin to illustrate his argument.
However, our Democratic friends have ever since stigmatized Laffer’s “supply-side” economics as “trickle-down” economics.
They may regret it after 2025. But maybe not.
What did Laffer tell the kids, the day before the official announcement of the Biden Recession that really isn’t a recession because reasons?
First of all, he recited his
Five Points for a healthy economy
Lower tax rates
limit government spending
Sound money
Minimal economic regulation
Free trade.
That’s it. Well not quite.
Don’t phase in tax cuts
The day after President Reagan got his tax cuts passed Laffer went in to see him. Reagan saw he was troubled, and asked about it.
Well, said Laffer. Th problem is that the tax cuts are phased in, and that means that people will delay income until the tax cuts take full effect and that means a recession.
Same thing with the Kennedy tax-rate cuts in 1961.
Effect of Tax-and-spend
If you increase the taxes on a rich person then he will create less jobs, because what’s the point.
If you increase handouts for a poor person then he will work less, because why bother.
It was Carter that Made Reagan Reagan
Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1976 and was only just beaten out — by about 11 delegates — by Gerald Ford at the Republican convention.
But, Laffer says, if Reagan had been president in 1976 he would never have achieved his iconic status. It took the Carter stagflation and 20 percent interest rates to make the Reagan election in 1980 into an election for the ages and Reagan a president for the ages.
So, says Laffer, we are setting up for a repeat. Because when the next Republican President takes office in 2025 and cuts tax rates right now and cuts spending right now and the economy turns on a dime and it’s Morning in America…
Because you see, dear liberal friends, all of your tax and spend and regulate politics tends to Make the Economy Smaller. Because, to tee off Laffer’s remarks above, if you cut the tax rates on a rich guy, he will create more jobs. If you cut handouts on the poor guy he will go out and get a job.
Just sayin’.
Go on. Check out the video.