Free Republic

Donald Trump is the first U.S. President in over 30 years who is seriously talking about reducing the country’s budget deficit, trade deficit and yes, the national debt, which has ballooned to over $37 trillion. However, he must follow a specific formula, otherwise, it will end in tragedy, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words:” “Jermone Powell, the head of the Fed, will not lower interest rates even though there's been a good jobs report, a good inflation report, a good corporate profits report. GDP is gonna be evaluated, apparently, upward and...

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell released his payroll expense tax (PET) report for 2024 Tuesday, and its projections came up nearly $50 million short. “Today’s announcement that PET revenues collected in 2024 were $47 million lower than projected requires action to ensure our budget remains balanced,” Harrell explained in a statement. Harrell said that his 2025 budget proposal was based on the projections from the independent Office of Economic and Revenue Forecasts. But since they got it wrong, the mayor said for the 2026 budget, “my office will consider all options, including additional revenue sources and appropriate expense reductions, to ensure...

The biggest threat to your health isn’t your inability to afford an inhaler or to get that weird mole checked, the GOP argues. It’s everything else about American society, from nutrition to neurotoxins.Unfortunately, the party’s agenda would make those other societal problems worse, too.Republicans desperately want to cut taxes this year, which will be expensive. So, they’re plotting to pay for the revenue loss (at least partly) by slashing the safety net. Among the biggest programs on the chopping block: Medicaid and Obamacare marketplace subsidies, which help low- to middle-income Americans purchase private-market insurance.Of course, the last time Republican lawmakers...

The whole video is 1:02 hours. They had covered several topics and had been talking Money Supply and Crypto when Art delivered this message towards the end of the video. And this was extracted from Youtube transcript. I may not have attributed every word correctly. And Youtube may not have captured every word correctly. ... Art: now you know why everyone's investing in Ireland because the capital is always Dublin. ... Cathie: my biggest fear is we are going to lose Innovation Art: we're not the we're not this is a Cathie: we're not? Art: no what you may lose...

Just because counterproductive economic policies have been around for a long time doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try for a better world. There’s a proven pro-growth, pro-liberty path.Both Republicans and Democrats at the national level have put us down a path of slow growth, massive deficits, and high inflation. With a new Republican majority in the U.S. House and the daunting debt ceiling fight over the bloated $31.4 trillion national debt almost exclusively due to excessive spending, there’s a proven pro-growth, pro-liberty path.In 2022, the U.S. had real GDP growth of just 0.9 percent (Q4-over-Q4), the highest inflation in 40 years,...

Renowned economic advisor to late President Ronald Reagan Art Laffer remains very optimistic about a rapid economic recovery, which flies right in the face of the apocalyptic narratives put out by the media. Laffer concluded that once big states “get pro-growth, once they get the restrictions removed because the disease incidence is less, you’re going to get that economy continuing to boom. I think we’re perfectly poised for a very, very rapid, continued recovery in this economy. “I am very optimistic about the country and the economy,” Laffer said.

Laffer said in a recent interview with Just the News that the government's widespread shutdown of society to slow the spread of coronavirus was medically necessary and fit within "reasonable limits," but reopening the economy should be based on calculated, fact-based risk rather than irrational, widespread fear "Let me tell you how I feel," Laffer said. "Now I'm 80. I've got six children, 13 grandchildren, and I have four great grandchildren. Really cool people. People I love more than life. I am perfectly willing to accept the higher risk of mortality, of dying, if I can feel better about their...

Economist Arthur Laffer weighed in on the trade talks between the United States and China, touting what a deal between the two could do for the market. Laffer agreed with President Donald Trump’s assertion that such a deal could boost the Dow Jones Industrial Average 10,000 points. “I think he’s right about 10,000 on the Dow,” Laffer told Fox Business Network “Mornings” host Maria Bartiromo on Thursday. “I mean, that’s a pull out of a hat, but frankly, it’s a huge thing for that because it starts having a dynamic consequence with the rest of the world — Japan, South...

The unsung hero of the GOP Christmas gift of a tax cut is Arthur Laffer -- the Reagan economist who helped devise the Gipper's tax reductions. Those tax cuts rebuilt the U.S. economy in the 1980s and pulled us out of the mini-depression of high inflation and unemployment in the late 1970s. Some 30 years later, Laffer has struck again. House Speaker Paul Ryan tells me that there "were very few economists who had a bigger impact on this tax bill than Laffer. Believe, me our (Republican) members listen to him." Rep. Mark Meadows, the chairman of the Freedom Caucus,...

The following paints a grim scenario. As you consider it, remember that sociopaths have no empathy. Thus, they have no gut feelings, no inner voice, to guide them about right or wrong, good or bad, wise or unwise. If you try to put yourself in Trump’s shoes, and conclude that you would never, could never, do such things, as a human being or as an American, you are using the wrong yardstick. Trump’s yardsticks are his own malignant narcissism first and Steve Bannon second. Rubles-to-doughnuts, Steve Bannon is painting this picture for Trump right now: With the appointment of Robert...

Art Laffer is a famous economist, one of the brains behind President Ronald Reagan's supply-side tax cuts in 1981. But he was also a political adviser to Reagan and other presidential candidates. Based on history rather than polls or demographics, he insists Donald Trump will win the presidential race—and win easily. History is an argument not often heard in presidential elections except in one case: the likelihood that after one party holds the White House for eight years, that party probably won't win four more years. The one exception in the past half-century was the election of George H.W. Bush...

Arthur Laffer of Laffer Associates reacts to presidential candidate Ted Cruz's tax plan, in which Cruz proposes individuals above certain income threshold pay a 10 percent flat tax, and a 16 percent flat tax on companies. http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000509983

On the Sunday broadcast of "The Cats Roundtable" on New York City's AM 970, host John Catsimatidis spoke about the upcoming 2016 presidential election with economist Arthur Laffer, a former member of President Ronald Reagan's economic policy advisory board. Laffer not only predicted a victory for the GOP, but he would be "surprised" if they did not take as many as 47 of the 50 states. "I would be surprised if the Republicans don't take 45, 46, 47 states out of the 50," he said. "I mean, I think we're going to landslide this election." "I think Donald Trump is...

On the Sunday broadcast of "The Cats Roundtable" on New York City's AM 970, host John Catsimatidis spoke about the upcoming 2016 presidential election with economist Arthur Laffer, a former member of President Ronald Reagan's economic policy advisory board. Laffer not only predicted a victory for the GOP, but he would be "surprised" if they did not take as many as 47 of the 50 states. "I would be surprised if the Republicans don't take 45, 46, 47 states out of the 50," he said. "I mean, I think we're going to landslide this election."[continued]

Art Laffer, famed member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board, has co-authored, with Stephen Moore, an article for Investor’s Business Daily in which they assert that Rand Paul and Ted Cruz have the “best” tax proposals.

As we've cheerfully noted on these pages, the good news on the presidential campaign trail is that almost all Republicans are now for serious pro-growth tax reform and simplification. Every candidate wants lower rates (some a one-rate flat tax), fewer loopholes and carve-outs, and a reduced role for an abusive IRS. What a contrast with Bernie Sanders, who declared at last week's Democratic debate that he could live with a 90% tax rate on the rich. Why not take it all, Bernie? All the GOP tax plans look good to us — though some are admittedly better than others. The...

This was Neal Cavuto last night.

'Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem," may well be President Reagan's most oft-repeated quote. And the reason it's so frequently quoted is because it's so damn true. And no example fits this quote better than the government actions taken before and during the Great Depression. In 1929, the single largest tax increase on traded products was passed by both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate. In May 1930, this so-called Smoot-Hawley tariff was signed into law by President Herbert Hoover, which precipitated massive retaliation on U.S. products by foreign governments. From that moment...

Americans are right to be feeling so down about the economy, according to Art Laffer. The former economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan said Saturday that he can understand why people's views on the jobs market, inflation, and growth remain negative, despite a strong 2023 where price pressures cooled and the US managed to dodge a long-expected recession. "Let me just give you where the huge disconnect comes here," he told Fox Business. "People care about jobs, not unemployment rates, and so when you look at total jobs, it's way down."

Catherine Rampell of the WaPo is correctly recognizing that states are sabotaging their finances. While she recognizes the coming problem, she blames tax cuts instead of overspending and depending on the rich as the culprit. Democrats rarely think they spend too much and rarely want to allow the people and businesses to keep more of what they earn. As recession looms (maybe), states sabotage their own financesRampell, like most journalists, has falsely blamed Trump's tax rate cuts for cutting federal revenues when revenues actually rose substantially after the rate cuts. Overspending has always been the problem in DC.Many states sabotaged...