Quotes by Arthur Laffer
“A carbon tax by itself would make driving more expensive, that’s very true. But in exchange for that, there are going to be more jobs, more output, more employment, and more products available. So really, as long as you’re going to collect the revenues you’re going to collect, you’re going to have to trade off one tax for the other.”
“And just remember, every dollar we spend on outsourcing is spent on U.S. goods or invested back in the U.S. market. That’s accounting.”
“And let the Fed sell bonds to bring bank reserves back down to required reserve levels, so we have restraint on bank lending and bank issuances of liability.”
“And you can’t have a prosperous economy when the government is way overspending, raising tax rates, printing too much money, over regulating and restricting free trade. It just can’t be done.”
“Ask me whether inflation represents longer-term problem. I think there’s a potential there for excess reserves to create problems.”
“Because tax cuts create an incentive to increase output, employment, and production, they also help balance the budget by reducing means-tested government expenditures. A faster-growing economy means lower unemployment and higher incomes, resulting in reduced unemployment benefits and other social welfare programs.”
“California is the highest-tax state in the nation and has been for a long time. It has the highest-paid teachers in the nation, by far – $400 a month more than New Jersey – and yet California is the third lowest state on test scores for fourth and eighth grade English and math in the nation, and has been at the low level for a long, long time.”
“Government spending is taxation. When you look at this, I’ve never heard of a poor person spending himself into prosperity; let alone I’ve never heard of a poor person taxing himself into prosperity.”
“I feel very uncomfortable with respect to looking at inflation.”
“I mean, everyone agrees with stress tests for banks. I mean that’s clear. But banks should do that on their own. And they should worry about their own capital functioning. That’s what they should do. It shouldn’t be a government function.”