RAYGUN VS. CLINTON

Here's a little more evidence that St. Raygun is no such thing and that supply-side economics doesn't work:

A Political Comeback: Supply-Side Economics
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
Published: March 26, 2008
NY Times

In the 1980s, though, during the initial era of supply-side tax cuts, per capita revenue from personal income taxes, adjusted for inflation, rose an average of just 0.7 percent annually throughout the Reagan presidency, according to the White House Office ofManagement and Budget.

That was far below what turned out to be an average annual increase of 6.5 percent in the eight years of the Clinton administration, when tax rates at the high end of the income ladder were raised.

Despite the lack of evidence for the effectiveness of supply-side tax cuts, some adherents have taken to criticizing the entire field of economics:

“What really happens is that the economy grows more vigorously when you lower tax rates,” said Kevin Hassett, an adviser to the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, and the director for economic policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “It is beyond the reach of economic science to explain precisely why that happens, but it does.”