"Crank theory on tax cuts
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Monday, June 23, 2003
Dear Editor:
I live in Augusta, Ga., and the Augusta Chronicle recently ran one of your editorials entitled "Tax Cuts Warranted." In your editorial, you claimed that under Reagan, tax cuts boosted tax revenues. This is completely false. Here are the statistics from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget's annual historical tables (1987):
Year Tax Collections in Constant (adjusted for inflation) 1987 dollars
1981 $766.6 billion
1982 $738.2 billion Reagan's tax cuts go in effect here.
1983 $684.3 billion Revenue from corporate income tax fell so drastically that Reagan agreed to a corporate
tax hike here. Remember his "revenue enhancement" as a euphemism for a tax increase?
1984 $730.4 billion
1985 $776.1 billion
It took five years for the tax collections to equal what they were before Reagan cut taxes, and this is when the tax revenue base is naturally increasing with the increase in the GDP which occurs every year, unless there is a recession. Economists are in near unanimous agreement that supply-side theory has been proven false. In fact, there is not a single supply-side wing in any college economics department in the United States.
It's a crank theory, popular with politicians who think they can promise us the moon and the stars.
Mark Gelbart"
Mr. Gelbart:
I see you only posted the years 1981 - 1985.
Gee, I'm just curious. Since you bothered to look this up, I'm wondering......what was the Collected Tax Reveune like for the LAST 3 YEARS Reagan was in office? You know, like Reagan was President from 1980 to 1988?
Where are the figures for 1986, 1987 and 1988?
Perhaps you'd like to post it?
Or should I?
manofaiki
The National Center for Policy Analysis, Office of Management and Budget reported tax revenues rising (in constant 1992 dollars) from $418.7 billion in 1980, to $436.8 billion in 1986, to $504.1 billion in 1990.