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AnimusRex -> RE: The GOP and the Politics of National Destruction (12/9/2009 5:12:01 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy
Since every tax rate decrease has been followed by greater tax revenues, a lot of people who, unlike you, know what they are taking about.
Someone who knows what he is talking about, Bruce Bartlett. He was one of Reagan's advisors, an architect of the supply side theory you are referencing.
Here is a link to his blog, where he comments on a realistic plan to reduce the deficit.
His argument is that supply side economics worked in the early 80's because it was a reaction to the higher levels of marginal tax rates then in place, and the stagflation that was crippling the economy.
He holds that we have acheived all the good that we ever will out of tax cuts, and they will no longer stimulate the economy, but merely throw away good money.
I am not an economist, but there seems to be some good intuitive logic here. the idea that all tax cuts will always produce higher revenue is one of those arguments that needs a limit to it, otherwise it become lunacy.
If lowering tax rates always produces higher revenue, does 0% tax rates produce infinite revenue? There must be a flattening of the curve somewhere, a point at which lowering tax rates no longer produces any revenue.
In the other thread I listed the basic numbers of our budget, and showed that the deficit is about a full 1/3 of the entire budget. The deficit is also 2/3 of the revenue we take in.
The point is, there isn't a magic bullet here; saying we can balance the budget and have tax cuts too, is a free lunch scam; it is saying that we can get good things without any sacrifice or hard work or limitations.
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