The Republican presidential supply-siders

Rudy Giuliani
"When I became mayor of New York City, things were out of control. I lowered taxes, I reduced the growth of government, made government more accountable, and New York City boomed. I would do these things for America because I know they work. I know that reducing taxes produces more revenues. Democrats don’t know that. They don’t believe that." (11/29/07).

"Remember, you collect more money with lower taxes than you do with higher taxes. I reduced the income tax in New York by twenty-four percent, and I was collecting forty percent more revenues from the lower tax than the higher tax" (9/28/07).

"I regard myself as a supply-sider for sure. I mean, watched Ronald Reagan do it and learned it, saw it work. Taxes get reduced, more revenue come in" (3/27/07).

John McCain
"[H]istorically when you raise people's taxes, revenue goes down. Every time we cut capital gains taxes, there has been an increase in revenues" (7/8/08).

"[H]istory shows every time you have cut capital gains taxes, revenues have increased, going back to Jack Kennedy" (4/20/08).

"Don’t listen to this siren song about cutting taxes. Every time in history we have raised taxes it has cut revenues" (1/17/08).

"I would suggest that most economists agree that there was an increase in revenues... associated with the tax cuts" (12/5/07).

"Tax cuts—tax cuts increase revenues. The tax cuts, the revenues increased because of it. The spending outpaced the tax cuts" (11/27/07).

"Tax cuts, starting with Kennedy, as we all know, increase revenues. So what’s the argument for increasing taxes? If you get the opposite effect out of tax cuts?" (3/5/07).

Mitt Romney
"If you lower taxes enough, you create more growth. And if you create growth, you get more jobs. You get more jobs, more people are paying taxes. You get more taxes paid, the government has more money by charging lower tax rates" (3/29/07).

Fred Thompson
"The results of the experiment that began when Congress passed a series of tax-rate cuts in 2001 and 2003 are in. Supporters of those cuts said they would stimulate the economy. Opponents predicted ever-increasing budget deficits and national bankruptcy unless tax rates were increased, especially on the wealthy.

"In fact, Treasury statistics show that tax revenues have soared and the budget deficit has been shrinking faster than even the optimists projected. Since the first tax cuts were passed, when I was in the Senate, the budget deficit has been cut in half" (4/14/07).

Comments

[M. A. Stritty]

It's a shame they haven't learned that supply-side economics doesn't work and they believe in this unproven tax myth.