Peter J. Tanous never asks why the GOP tax cuts since 1986 have failed to produce the GDP which would have produced the missing revenues he would now recover with a VAT

 Sad!

Maybe he could ask his buddies Laffer and Moore!

VAT the Only Solution to Our $40 Trillion Debt Problem

Peter Tanous, The Hill

  

Real GDP today might have been $35 trillion instead of $24 trillion had it not been for Ronald Reagan

Real GDP today might have been $35 trillion instead of $24 trillion had it not been for Ronald Reagan. 

From 1Q1947 to 1Q1984, real GDP grew at a compound annual rate of 3.585% from $2.18268 trillion to $8.03484 trillion.

Since 1Q1984 through 2Q2026, updated yesterday, the compound annual growth rate fell to 2.651% so that real GDP today is $24.26961 trillion when at the previous rate it might have achieved $35.58524 trillion.

The 26% cut to the growth rate resulted in underperformance of nearly 32%, represented by $11.3 trillion in missing real GDP after 42.25 years.

Did recipients of massive ordinary income tax rate cuts know best what to do with their own money?

The answer in China is Shì de.

  

The calculation is 35585.24 = 8034.84 * (1 + 0.03585) ^42.25

 

 

The consequences of the Reagan Revolution: $11.1 trillion missing real GDP since 1Q1984

 Real GDP in 1Q2026 reached $24.175 trillion.

Had real GDP continued to grow at the pre-1984 rate to now, it would have been $35.273 trillion, 46% more than it is.

That's the difference between a compound annual growth rate from 1947 to 1984 at 3.585% continued to 2026 instead of at 2.657% since 1984 to now.

IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES.