美国国家公共电台 NPR From A Napkin To A White House Medal — The Path Of A Controversial Economic Idea

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Economist¹ Art Laffer is set to receive the Medal of Freedom today from President Trump². Laffer helped popularize the notion that tax cuts can pay for themselves through faster economic growth. Ronald Reagan's former budget director David Stockman calls Laffer, quote, "the greatest fake economist to ever come down the pike," end quote. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.

SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE³: Art Laffer's journey to the nation's highest civilian⁴ honor began 45 years ago with a round of drinks in a Washington cocktail⁵ lounge. Laffer, a young economist at the time, was trying to persuade President Ford⁶'s deputy chief of staff, a guy named Dick Cheney, that lowering taxes could actually boost government revenue.

GRACE-MARIE TURNER: Art was trying to explain to Cheney how the Laffer curve works.

HORSLEY: Grace-Marie Turner, a reporter who was there, says Cheney wasn't getting it right away. So Laffer resorted to a visual aid.

TURNER: So he sketched⁷ out this Laffer curve on a paper cocktail napkin at the Hotel Washington. It was just across the street from the White House.

HORSLEY: The Ford Administration never embraced Laffer's philosophy, but Ronald Reagan did. Tax historian Bruce Bartlett says the namesake curve that Laffer sketched that day provided intellectual cover for Reagan's 1981 tax cut.

BRUCE BARTLETT: Basically, it was a way to have your cake and eat it, too.

HORSLEY: Bartlett, who later worked in the Reagan White House, says in those days, Republicans pushing tax cuts still had to pay lip service to fiscal⁸ responsibility.

BARTLETT: So if you wanted to have a tax cut, you either had to pay for it by raising other taxes, cutting spending, or come up with some gimmick⁹, like the Laffer curve, to simply assert that it wouldn't lose revenues.

HORSLEY: Despite Laffer's assurances, the Reagan tax cuts did lose revenue. And while the economy eventually boomed, deficits¹⁰ soared. Reagan was ultimately forced to reverse about half the cuts. Today, most serious Republican economists¹¹ dismiss the idea that tax cuts pay for themselves through faster economic growth. But sociologist¹² Elizabeth Popp Berman of SUNY Albany says the Laffer curve has nonetheless stuck around.

ELIZABETH POPP BERMAN: Once you take those kinds of ideas and put them purely¹³ into the political sphere, they sort of take on a life of their own.

HORSLEY: In 2012, the state of Kansas paid Laffer $75,000 to help then-Governor Sam Brownback craft his own tax cut. Laffer told NPR's Planet Money cutting taxes would do great things for the Kansas economy.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

ART LAFFER: More employment, more output, more production. There are more jobs created in Kansas. There'll be more payroll¹⁴ taxes.

HORSLEY: It didn't work out that way. Annie McKay, who was head of the Kansas Center for Economic Growth, says despite Laffer's promises, state revenues plunged¹⁵ by $600 million and job growth lagged.

ANNIE MCKAY: His voice was nowhere to be heard when we were undergoing nine consecutive¹⁶ rounds of budget cuts, credit downgrades. There wasn't any part of the state budget that wasn't being used to prop¹⁷ up this failed tax experiment.

HORSLEY: State lawmakers eventually reversed the tax cuts. Laffer insisted they just needed more time to work. He continues to champion tax cuts at the federal level. A month after President Trump's election, Laffer told MORNING EDITION, corporate¹⁸ taxes should be cut dramatically.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

LAFFER: Dropping that tax rate to 15% would have a huge impact on the U.S. economy and would have very little impact, if any, on tax revenues from corporations, from businesses.

HORSLEY: Congress did slash¹⁹ corporate taxes, although not as far as Laffer wanted. And despite a strong economy, corporate tax revenues dropped last year by 26%. No matter how many times Laffer's projections²⁰ have proven wrong, White House economic adviser²¹ Larry Kudlow is unfazed.

LARRY KUDLOW: I know some people agree and some people may not agree with his views, but I'm a Laffer curve guy.

HORSLEY: A replica²² of the cocktail napkin where Laffer first sketched that curve is now on display at the Smithsonian's Museum of American history. But Grace-Marie Turner says that cloth museum piece is not the original.

TURNER: This wasn't a kind of establishment that would have had a cloth napkin. And I don't think anybody knows what happened to that napkin. It probably got picked up and carried off when the beer glasses were sent back to the bar.

HORSLEY: A fitting end for the Laffer curve as an economic forecasting tool. But when it comes to political marketing²³, the curve and its creator live on. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

1 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

5 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

6 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

7 sketched   

v.草拟（sketch的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The historical article sketched the major events of the decade. 这篇有关历史的文章概述了这十年中的重大事件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He sketched the situation in a few vivid words. 他用几句生动的语言简述了局势。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

9 gimmick   

n.(为引人注意而搞的)小革新，小发明

参考例句：

• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。
• It is just a public relations gimmick.这只不过是一种公关伎俩。

10 deficits   

n.不足额( deficit的名词复数 )；赤字；亏空；亏损

参考例句：

• The Ministry of Finance consistently overestimated its budget deficits. 财政部一贯高估预算赤字。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Many of the world's farmers are also incurring economic deficits. 世界上许多农民还在遭受经济上的亏损。 来自辞典例句

11 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 sociologist   

n.研究社会学的人，社会学家

参考例句：

• His mother was a sociologist,researching socialism.他的母亲是个社会学家，研究社会主义。
• Max Weber is a great and outstanding sociologist.马克斯·韦伯是一位伟大的、杰出的社会学家。

13 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

14 payroll   

n.工资表，在职人员名单，工薪总额

参考例句：

• His yearly payroll is $1.2 million.他的年薪是120万美元。
• I can't wait to get my payroll check.我真等不及拿到我的工资单了。

15 plunged   

v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
• She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳，从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。

16 consecutive   

adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的

参考例句：

• It has rained for four consecutive days.已连续下了四天雨。
• The policy of our Party is consecutive.我党的政策始终如一。

17 prop   

vt.支撑；n.支柱，支撑物；支持者，靠山

参考例句：

• A worker put a prop against the wall of the tunnel to keep it from falling.一名工人用东西支撑住隧道壁好使它不会倒塌。
• The government does not intend to prop up declining industries.政府无意扶持不景气的企业。

18 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

19 slash   

vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩

参考例句：

• The shop plans to slash fur prices after Spring Festival.该店计划在春节之后把皮货降价。
• Don't slash your horse in that cruel way.不要那样残忍地鞭打你的马。

20 projections   

预测( projection的名词复数 )； 投影； 投掷； 突起物

参考例句：

• Their sales projections are a total thumbsuck. 他们的销售量预测纯属估计。
• The council has revised its projections of funding requirements upwards. 地方议会调高了对资金需求的预测。

21 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

22 replica   

n.复制品

参考例句：

• The original conservatory has been rebuilt in replica.温室已按原样重建。
• The young artist made a replica of the famous painting.这位年轻的画家临摹了这幅著名的作品。

23 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。