I’ve mentioned Art Laffer a number of times over the years. He’s the namesake, if not the inventor, of the Laffer Curve, which illustrates the theory that if a state lowers taxes, economic prosperity will follow and government revenues will rise enough that there won’t be a shortfall in the state budget.
This has been tried several times and failed, most recently in Kansas. The economic phenomenon described by the Laffer Curve may occur, but only in highly confined circumstances.
But does this stop the GOP from paying obeisance at his altar? Ho-dowdy, no it doesn’t:
Ronald Reagan’s former budget director, David Stockman, calls Art Laffer “the greatest Fake Economist to ever come down the pike.”
Laffer helped popularize the notion that tax cuts pay for themselves through faster economic growth.
It almost never works out in practice. But Laffer and his namesake curve remain darlings of Republican politicians.
On Wednesday, Laffer will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation’s highest civilian honor — from President Trump. [NPR]
It appears the Republicans remain impervious to the thought that they might be wrong, doesn’t it? They’ve taken a failed economist and a resentment of paying taxes to Big Government and turned it into an award that – unless he’s done something marvelous which has escaped my attention – has been manifestly unearned.
Rather, Laffer provided intellectual cover for a policy which satisfied the emotional predilections of the members of the GOP. Mix in the religious fervor which has taken over the party, the refusal to admit error, the certainty that the liberals and leftists are inherently evil, and this action should be unsurprising. By attempting to cement the reputation of their favorite economist into a position in the heavens, they also hope to legitimate their economic theories and thus leverage themselves into an extension of power.
Will it work? Depends on the audience. I don’t happen to know any economists, but it’s my guess that most are interested in what works, not in the dictates of ideology.
But the general citizenry? It might. Surveys of what citizens think happened during the Obama years vs what really happened can make for dismaying reading. People see what they want to see; it’s so hard to see beyond the end of one’s nose, your’s truly included.
Rather than rewarding someone for years of success, this is all about rewarding the Republican Party for keeping power for themselves. Laffer just gets something to chuckle over.
