"Doug Miller" wrote in message
.. .
In article , "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

You may want to take a look:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply-side_economics

Interesting article -- yet it fails to provide the most crucial (to this
discussion) datum: a graph of tax revenues vs. tax rates.

True, it's all about the economic ideas rather than the evidence.

In that regard, tax revenues have consistently fallen behind the losses due
to tax cuts during the times that supply-side economics has been in
ascendance. If you look at it in terms of the Laffer curve, it implies that
all of the activity has been on the left side of the curve, which is the
side where the revenues from tax cuts are slight, and the losses from tax
cuts are large. This agrees with the fact that we're running a substantial
deficit.

Supply-siders are avoiding acknowledging the left-side arguments because
they're accurate descriptions of what has actually happened; all you have to
do is measure revenues and tax rates, and plunk the results down on the
curve. They're also damned inconvenient to the supply-siders' theories,
because they suggest that, in terms of tax revenues, our taxes are already
too low. Compared to the rest of the world that does appear to be the case.

However, that's another argument. And the Laffer Curve is about tax
revenues, not directly about the health of the economy. So I don't want to
even try to argue this one. It's much too complicated.

The Wikipedia links do a good job of fleshing it out, for anyone with that
much interest in the ideas and, more importantly, the evidence.

--
Ed Huntress