Arthur Laffer Quotes
If you like the Post Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles and you think they're run well, just wait till you see Medicare, Medicaid and health care done by the government.
Note how Laffer, ideologically opposed to Federal government operations, conflated the Motor Vehicles Administration operations, badly run in many states by the Federal. Ironically he appealed to Americans to judge Medicare and Medicaid. What he overlooked it that the citizen participants in these programs are very happy with the Federal Management. Next to Social Security, Medicare has been the second most popular Federal program. In 2012, when the Obamacare additions to Medicare and Medicaid were major issues, Americans voted clearly for President Obama and Obamacare. Many conservatives however continue to oppose government operation of anything except the State Department, the FBI and the Military / Security agencies.
Arthur Laffer, Member, Presidential Economic Policy Advisory Board (Republican), Interview, CNN in 2009
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
That particular Libertarian platform called for the abolition / repeal of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Post Office, Federal election Commission and campaign finance laws. Extreme radical ideas such as this are not typical of Libertarian Party positions before or afterwards. The quotation illustrates that there are people in America who would end public education if they could. The quotation also illustrates how a small cadre of people can capture control of a political party and create a platform that is their own personal views which may be different from most of the party members or the historical position that the party has taken. In 1980 the Libertarian Party Vice Presidential Candidate was David Koch, one half of the billionaire conservative Koch brothers. Their money financed the Libertarian Party in that year and David Koch’s views then prevailed in the party platform. Historically, the Koch brothers moved from a minor third party to the Republican party at the beginning of the 21st century when their money was able to help drive the party very far to the right from the traditions of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
Arthur Betz Laffer is an American economist and author who first gained prominence during the Reagan administration as a member of Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board (1981–89). Laffer is best known for the Laffer curve, an illustration of the concept that there exists some tax rate between 0% and 100% that will result in maximum tax revenue for government. In certain circumstances, this would allow governments to cut taxes, and simultaneously increase revenue and economic growth.
