Arthur Laffer, economist and author of Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive Our Economy, praised President Donald Trump’s economic policies while warning of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) socialistic prescriptions for increased economic centralization, offering his analysis in a Monday-aired interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.
Laffer cheered Trump’s nomination of Stephen Moore to the Federal Reserve’s governorship. “I think Steve Moore is an excellent person, a wonderful guy, a journalist who has specialized in economics. [He] knows his stuff pretty well. He’s amazing. He’s held a lot of big-time jobs over the years and I’ve known him for probably 25 years, and he would be an excellent member of the Federal Reserve board, to be honest, and he would bring diversity [and] a different viewpoint.”
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Laffer added, “Plus … [Stephen Moore] gets along with people very, very well, so I think the people on the Federal Reserve board in very short order would like him a lot, and would confide with him and talk with him and hear different views. and I think it would make U.S. policy better.”
Laffer lauded Trump’s understanding of economics. “The president understands very well the role of lower tax rates create incentives to increase output and economic production,” he determined. “The tax bill was a classic example of it, not only cutting the statutory rate from 35 to 21, but 100 percent expensing of capital purchases, [and] territoriality instead of a global tax system. All that stuff is just really, really great.”
“Deregulation is really good for the American economy, as well,” continued Laffer. “On all this stuff, [Donald Trump] has just done a great job. All the deregulation — from energy to all sorts of other things — across the board … it is really important to the prosperity of the U.S. economy.”
The American and Chinese economies are interdependent, assessed laffer.
“I think [Donald Trump] is trying to get a good trade deal where we have free trade globally for the United States,” stated Laffer. “I’m just hoping — keeping my fingers crossed, it’s still a work in progress – but I think he’s going to get it. China is the big country to get that deal with, because they’re so important to the United States and we’re so important to them. Both countries have a real obligation to make a great deal for both countries.”
Laffer went on, “Reducing barriers to trade [is important]. … Without China, there is no Walmart, and without Walmart, there is no lower class or middle class prosperity. We desperately need China and they desperately need us.”
Laffer continued, “If we reduce the trade barriers by getting rid of the stealing of intellectual property and all these things that have been going on that really should have been gotten rid of long ago, if we can get it to where we have truly honest free trade honoring laws and respecting individual countries, if we could get a true free trade deal, that would launch the U.S. way up into the atmosphere, and China, too.”
“When foreign countries put on trade barriers to U.S. products — which they do much more so than we do to their products — but those barriers that they put on hurt their countries just as much as they hurt us,” assessed Laffer. “There is no advantage to a foreign country putting on trade barriers to U.S. exports to that country. Unretaliated, that hurts their country and our country.”
Laffer explained, “Let’s imagine that Japan discovered a cure for Alzheimer’s, and let’s imagine that the U.S. discovers a cure for colon cancer, and let’s imagine Japan — true to form — prohibits us from selling a cure for colon cancer in Japan. Should we get even with them and not allow them to sell their cure for Alzheimer’s in the U.S.? I don’t think so. Free trade benefits both countries, and when any one country puts barriers on it — no matter what those barriers are — it hurts every country.”
Democrat and left-wing economic proposals would hurt prosperity, said Laffer.
“My dream has always been to make the poor richer, not to make rich people poor. Poor people need to be made better, not rich people pulled down. If, in fact we have a change of administration in 2021 — on January 20th, a new president — I am very concerned about the future of America, just the way I was when Barack Obama took office.”
Laffer added, “The great recession was caused by the prospects of Obama becoming president, and that is exactly what happened and had a horrible economy. So I think this election in 2020 is really, really, really important, and so far I don’t see a Democrat — now, I’ve voted Democrat half the time, I’m a Clinton Democrat, I’m a Kennedy Democrat, I’m a Reagan Republican, and I’m a Trump Republican — when I see this, I don’t see a Democrat who would be pro-growth and lead to more prosperity. I would be very worried about the U.S. economy if Trump were to be defeated and if Republicans didn’t pick up the House and the Senate.”
“[A Bernie Sanders presidency] would crush the economy,” concluded Laffer. “People don’t work to pay taxes. They work to get what they can after tax, and it’s that very personal incentive that motivates people to apply that extra little bit to make a little bit more, to develop a little bit more, to hire a few more. When you raise that tax rate, it has been demonstrably shown it causes real hardships in the economy. Bernie Sanders’ ideas are just plain wrong. I’d love to debate him on it anytime.”
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Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.
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