Art Laffer: Presidential Economic Advisor Grades Trump's Policies So Far

**Arthur Laffer** (0:00)
The bold statement Donald Trump says is imminently practicable if he sets his mind to it and gets the IRS and everyone to design a tax code that can get rid of the IRS. The neat thing about a flat tax, we had it flat where we replaced all these federal taxes, all of them, with two flat rates, one on business net sales and one on personal unadjusted gross income. It would be the greatest thing in the world. Two flat rate taxes, nothing else, from the first dollar to the last dollar of 13% flat tax. You know, there's no arbitrage potential, there's nothing in there. Can you imagine the savings that would be? All that, those are the only two taxes. Hell, we'd be the most productive nation that ever appeared on planet Earth plus the kingdom of heaven. So I think if he wants to go in that direction, he can easily do it.

**Adam Taggart** (0:57)
Welcome to Thoughtful Money. I'm its founder and your host, Adam Taggart. The new Trump Administration has wasted no time deploying its ambitious and disruptive economic policies. Tax cuts, aggressive trade renegotiations, deregulation, doze-driven cost reductions, and a potential new sovereign wealth fund. What are the intended benefits of these policies? And are they likely to succeed? And are they being implemented in the right way? Might they tip the economy into recession before the long-term benefits materialize? Well, I can think of a few better people to ask these questions to than today's guest who has served in the past as an economic advisor to President Trump as well as to many other previous presidential administrations, both Democrat and Republican. Today we're fortunate to welcome back to the program economist Dr. Arthur Laffer. He was the first to hold the title of Chief Economist at the Office for Management and Budget in the early 1970s. He then later served as a member of President Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board. He's perhaps best known for developing the Laffer Curve, a model for determining the optimal balance between tax revenues and economic growth. Dr. Laffer, thank you so much for joining us today.

**Arthur Laffer** (2:09)
Adam, it's my pleasure. I love that. Could you please send that to my mom?
She would actually believe it. I would love that. Thank you very much. Seriously.

**Adam Taggart** (2:19)
I know. It takes a couple of minutes to get to the discussion because you've got such an accomplished CV. It takes just so long to get through.

**Arthur Laffer** (2:26)
That's what happens when you're really old. When you're 21, you don't have a long CV. When you're 84, and how many things he did rather than how many things he's going to do. Well, you know what I'm saying.

**Adam Taggart** (2:40)
Anyways, well, look, undeniably that you were the right man for this discussion, Dr. Laffer. So if you don't mind, I'm just going to roll up my sleeves and get straight to the good stuff. Okay. So I think last time I interviewed you, Trump was the president-elect, but he hadn't actually taken office yet. Now he has. We've got what, 45, 50 days or so to look back on so far. What are 45 or 50 days, like it or hate it? There's just been years worth of activity compressed into just a month and a half here. What is your current assessment, both of the policies now as officially deployed, and how you think they're going so far?

**Arthur Laffer** (3:25)
Yeah. Let me just say that I'm amazed at how much he's gotten done in such a short period of time. With the very slim margin we had in the House, he's gotten the bills through. I mean, he really has. He got in the Senate. It looks like we got the tax cuts going to happen and that's all great.
I'd look at what he did on the border and that's not my specialty area by any means, but it's amazing. It's just the illegal immigration just stopped. If you look at what he's doing on deregulation, I think it's amazing. Doge, with Elon Musk going on and doing what they're doing. I mean, I don't know the details of all those programs. We've all seen snippets and all little examples. And they all are just crazy ones. I mean, getting rid of those is just crazy wonderful. So, you know, excess spending can be brought under control by Elon Musk and the team. I'm just all for it. I mean, who wouldn't be? I am extraordinarily pleased with what the president has done. And I'm shocked to the core that he has been as successful as he has been.

**Adam Taggart** (4:26)