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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump's New Economic Adviser Lawrence Kudlow Has Been Wrong About Everything for Decades
By Jonathan Chait
March 14, 2018
1:14 pm
A dozen years ago, I wrote a book about the unshakable grip of supply-side economics upon the Republican Party. Supply-side economics is not merely a generalized preference for small government with low taxes, but a commitment to the cause of low taxes, particularly for high earners, that borders on theological. In the time that has passed since then, that grip has not weakened at all. The appointment of Lawrence Kudlow as head of the National Economic Council indicates how firmly supply-siders control Republican economic policy, and how little impact years of failed analysis have had upon their place of power.
The Republican stance on taxes, like its position on climate change (fake) and national health insurance (against it), is unique among right-of-center parties in the industrialized world. Republicans oppose higher taxes everywhere and always, at every level of government. In 2012, every Republican presidential candidate, including moderate Jon Huntsman, indicated they would oppose accepting even a dollar of higher taxes in return for $10 dollars of spending cuts. They likewise believe tax cuts are the necessary tonic for every economic circumstance.
The purest supply-siders, like Kudlow, go further and deeper in their commitment. Kudlow attributes every positive economic indicator to lower taxes, and every piece of negative news to higher taxes. While that sounds absurd, it is the consistent theme he has maintained throughout his career as a prognosticator. Its not even a complex form of kookery, if you recognize the pattern. Its a very simple and blunt kind of kookery.
In 1993, when Bill Clinton proposed an increase in the top tax rate from 31 percent to 39.6 percent, Kudlow wrote, There is no question that President Clintons across-the-board tax increases
will throw a wet blanket over the recovery and depress the economys long-run potential to grow. This was wrong. Instead, a boom ensued. Rather than question his analysis, Kudlow switched to crediting the results to the great tax-cutter, Ronald Reagan. The politician most responsible for laying the groundwork for this prosperous era is not Bill Clinton, but Ronald Reagan, he argued in February, 2000.
By December 2000, the expansion had begun to slow. What had happened? According to Kudlow, it meant Reagans tax-cutting genius was no longer responsible for the economys performance. The Clinton policies of rising tax burdens, high interest rates and re-regulation is responsible for the sinking stock market and the slumping economy, he mourned, though no taxes or re-regulation had taken place since he had credited Reagan for the boom earlier that same year. By the time George W. Bush took office, Kudlow was plumping for his tax-cut plan. Kudlow not only endorsed Bushs argument that the budget surplus he inherited from Clinton the one Kudlow and his allies had insisted in 1993 could never happen, because the tax hikes would strangle the economy would turn out to be even larger than forecast. Faster economic growth and more profitable productivity returns will generate higher tax revenues at the new lower tax-rate levels. Future budget surpluses will rise, not fall. This was wrong, too. (I have borrowed these quotes from my book, in which Kudlow plays a prominent role.)
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https://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/new-trump-economist-kudlow-has-been-wrong-about-everything.html
jayschool2013
(2,312 posts)It's all about the television ratings, baby.
This is show business, pure and simple.
Like "Duck Dynasty." Only's it's "Dick Dynasty," starring Duh-ligula.
poboy2
(2,078 posts)DFW
(54,365 posts)Kudlow is a brash loudmouth with a New York accent who tries to bury people who call him wrong with a torrent of on air rhetoric, and quickly moves to change the subject when someone actually points out how he is wrong about something. At least, when I saw him on TV in the States 20 or so years ago, that's what he was. That is one cat I doubt has changed his spots any. He appears to still find broadcasters who hire him, even though that is equivalent to a college hiring an astronomy professor who claims the world is flat.
Trump probably sees in Kudlow a mirror image of himself, but with different hair. Who cares if he's wrong about economics as long as he kisses Trump's ass?
poboy2
(2,078 posts)Elwood P Dowd
(11,443 posts)predictions for tax cuts and deregulation come true.