The link I provided above is to the website of the actual author of the concept that Laffer is erroneously credited with having invented. Here's an excerpt that should clear it up:
"There is an incredible mythology that Ronald Reagan and Arthur B. Laffer invented the concept that lower taxes were self paying because of the increase in tax revenues from increased economic activity."Nothing but nothing could be further from the truth!
"This is a scan of a report that was issued by my company (Lionel D. Edie & Co. Incorporated) as written by me on January 22, 1963. It speaks for itself as you will note from the title of the report which is 'More From Less'! For a larger screen version of the report touch the page.
"What the report refers to is that in 1954 the Excess Profit Tax (put on for the Korean war) was removed at the initiative of President Eisenhower and to the shock and delight of observers the removal of that tax increased Federal revenues! I wrote this report in support of the proposals put forward for a tax cut in 1962 by President Jack Kennedy. From day one he had always taken the position that in order for the American economy to get moving taxes had to be lowered! At that time I was very close to Walter Heller and Arthur Okun, who were the key members of the Kennedy Council of Economic Advisors.
"The position of President Kennedy was pounded and pounded by the Chairman, Walter W. Heller and a member of the Council, Arthur Okun. After Walter W. Heller left the Council of Economic Advisors he gave a series of lectures at Harvard in 1966 called 'The Goodkin Lectures'.
"Those lectures were summarized and expounded in a most fascinating and perceptive book entitled 'New Dimensions of Political Economy' which was published by Harvard University Press in 1966. Here is a scan of one of his points regarding the tax cut of 1964 fostered, aided and abetted by then President Lyndon Baines Johnson. It was in the Johnson Administration that the tax cut proposed by President Kennedy in 1961 was finally enacted.
"This scan is at the bottom of page 72 of the Heller book. Note that the tax cut was set on the basis of an expansion in the economy and a return of revenues to the Federal Government. See the phrase 'the proposed cut would multiply itself...'"
"THAT WAS 16 YEARS BEFORE RONALD REAGAN, LAFFER AND REAGANOMICS!"