Arthur Laffer is a right-wing crank whose economic theory that tax cuts pay for themselves has not only been widely debunked by actual economists but has proven to be an abject failure when put into action.
Yet on Wednesday President Trump gave Laffer the Medal of Freedom — the highest honor a civilian can receive — and it’s all because Laffer has praised the egomaniac who occupies the Oval Office.
Laffer truly does not deserve the honor he’s about to receive.
Kansas’ GOP-controlled legislature passed a tax plan back in 2012 authored by Laffer that proved to be so disastrous and a cause of such public outrage that it led a Democrat to actually win the deep red state’s governor’s mansion in 2018. Within a few years the state deficit soared to nearly $ 300 million, despite severe cutbacks in public spending and services.
Of course, that hasn’t stopped Republicans from justifying their bank-breaking tax scams with his cockamamie theory.
In fact, the GOP tax scam is based off Laffer’s same failed principle that tax cuts pay for themselves, which we’ve already seen is not true, thanks to soaring federal deficits after Republicans jammed through the law.
But Trump, for his part, likes Laffer because the economist co-authored a book praising Trump’s economic policies. Laffer wrote the book with none other than Stephen Moore, the other quack economic theorist who Trump nominated to sit on the Federal Reserve Bank, but who had to withdraw because of racist and sexist remarks he made as a pundit on cable news.
Ultimately, Laffer’s theory nearly bankrupted an entire state and has been used to justify policies that led to soaring deficits. Yet instead of being run Washington, he’s now going to have a medal to show for it.
If that’s not the most perfect metaphor to describe the Trump era, we’re not sure what is.
Published with permission of The American Independent.
