Then why did you criticize Rush for saying a price decrease can raise revenues? I've taught econ at a Big Ten university and I've never heard of "elasticity curves". If you understand elasticity of demand (not "elasticity curves") you wouldn't have said that.
You need to read additional sources. If you read what I wrote earlier, they knew it would take time for the cuts to offset the disaster that was the result of Carter's policies. They were counting on growth to offset the rate decrease. As shown in the Cato Report:
This [increase in tax revenues] happened because the U.S. economy grew by more than one-third in real terms (34.3%), much faster than the 24.3% rate expected even by economists within the Reagan administration. Thus, by the time President Reagan left office, the economy was generating more tax revenue at a maximum 28% rate than many on the left forecast it to generate at a maximum 70% rate.
The Reagan tax-rate reductions did, in fact, pay for themselves — but it took about seven years.
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/tax-cuts-revenue-what-we-learned-1980s
“Then why did you criticize Rush for saying a price decrease can raise revenues?”
Because Martin Anderson, who was instrumental in designing and implementing Reagan’s program, expressly disavows this claim and says it was not their goal and it didn’t happen. It’s in his book ‘Revolution’.
And to follow that there is Lindsey’s book based upon a regression analysis that he had his Harvard students run to isolate the effect of the marginal rate cuts from the other factors that served to increase gross tax revenues. It matches what Anderson wrote. I’ll take Lindsey and Anderson over Limbaugh. I don’t find that a hard choice.
” and I’ve never heard of “elasticity curves”.”
Yeah, well maybe academics need to get out more where people use verbal shorthand. Google doesn’t seem to have as much trouble with the term as you are having. ‘Elasticity’ curve pulls up hundreds of images.
“You need to read additional sources”
I think I’m familiar with the subject. This is a list of just the books on the subject on my own bookshelf.
Revolution-Anderson
Reaganomics-Niskanen
The Growth Experiment-Lindsey
Supply-Side Revolution-Paul Craig Roberts
Reaganomics-Bruce Bartlett
How the World Works-Jude Wanniski
Seven Fat Years-Bartley
The increase in gross tax revenues were the result of more than the tax cuts which is what the Lindsey study accounts for. Moreover TEFRA in 1982 rescinded some of the cuts passed only a year before under ERTA, the Kemp-Roth bill.