Cam -
The Laffer Curve is accurate; and it posits a "theory", not a fact. Thank you for proving my point that liberals can't distinguish between the two.
Deny history if you must ... or mischaracterize it as "lowering taxes raises overall tax revenue," which is not what the Laffer Curve or "Voodoo economics" said. But it worked; for a while.
Essentially, Laffer posited that there is a point of diminishing marginal returns to tax revenues; if your effective tax rate is "above" that point, then lowering the effective tax rate will yield increased overall tax revenues. In human terms, there comes a point where the Gubmint just takes too much from me for me to want to work any harder; if they took less, I'd earn more and the Gubmint would get its (smaller) share of my (larger) income. Understandably, those who believe that the Government and its continual expansion are the reasons to work and/or exist in the first place take issue with the notion that some upstart taxpayer will alter his activity b/c he doesn't want to give "his" money to the Gubmint.
Obviously, with some stiction in the system, if you're just an itsy bitsy bit above the optimal tax rate, lowering the effective rate by an itsy bitsy bit is not going to result in noticeable gains (theory meets reality). However, in the mid-80's the effective tax rates were well in excess of the optimal rate, and lowering the rate DID increase tax revenues... which is not to say our legistlators couldn't find a way to spend 110% of the tax revenue increase.
Strange that the self-proclaimed "smarter/better educated/more nuanced" Left thought (and in some of the darker corners still thinks) that the ONLY way to raise tax revenues is to RAISE TAXES. That's so
primitive for such an enlightened bunch.
JP