<<You are right about Bush. I failed to think through the revision of the dates of the recession. I apologize.>>
No problem.
<<But I was more referring to the take off in GDP growth, not receipts.>>
Hold the phone. We've been talking about the deficits. You've said the growth in GDP, not tax increases, balanced the budget. But receipts started up before GDP did. This kills your argument. So now you want to change the subject to something else.
(And to be clear, i'm not saying GDP growth didn't matter, just refuting your claim that the tax increases didn't matter.)
<< Fable 2: The Reagan Tax Cuts "Caused" the Budget Deficit to Explode in the 1980s>>
Revenue fell after Reagan's tax cut. Revenue growth was stronger under Carter than under Reagan, and much stronger under Clinton.
<<For xupply- siders, the main issue was marginal tax rates, which, incidentally, remained historically low under Clinton,>>
But if you graph gdp growth and marginal tax rates, you see they've fallen together over the years. Our gdp never grew faster than during WWII and tax rates were never higher. Since then both have drifted down.
Supply side is snake oil. You want to tie marginal tax rates to the business cycle, to gdp growth. The connection just isn't there. Look at the data. If anything the correlation is the opposite of what you'd like it to be.
Steve Dietrich |
