fun with (tax) numbers

the WaPo's (finance-economics) columnist Sebastian Mallaby tries to dispute [bugmenot login] the 'lower taxes is good' argument of conservatives-republicans derived from the laffer curve. unfortunately, mallaby suffers from the typical leftist trap i've dubbed paul krugman disease, whereby the writer seemingly starts with one point but veers off course (a coincidental symptom often includes faulty stats)

mallaby starts: "Nobody serious believes that tax cuts pay for themselves"
unfortunately for Mallaby, none of the 5 republicans he cites really says that, as angle biting pundits notes

Mallaby dismisses a notion—that tax cuts pay for themselves—that none of his straw men actually articulates. Each of Mallaby’s putative victims argues only that revenues increase when the economy is stimulated through tax cuts. And each argument is left standing when Mallaby is through. Not only that, but they are left standing by Mallaby’s own accord: each of his experts asserts that revenues in fact increase when taxes are cut, they just don’t agree that it’s worth it.

realclearpolitics' John McIntyre sums up

Why is it so hard to explain the concept to many "intellectuals" that the idea is to grow the pie as big as possible, and that taking a smaller percentage of a bigger pie can yield more than a higher percentage of a smaller pie? Mallaby can quote all the economists and studies he wants to justify his attack on the economic wisdom of lower tax rates.
[snip]
Growth produces wealth, which leads to higher tax revenues and a more prosperous nation. Less growth produces less wealth and in turn lowers tax revenues. High tax rates retard economic growth; low tax rates encourage more growth. It really isn't that complicated.
Seriously.[emphasis in original]

while bullwinkle blog provides a blistering rebuttal to mallaby's column, american prospect's ezra klein takes mallaby's cue and changes the subject to rebut a rebuttal (with some krugman-esque number games to boot), and libertarian QandO sticks with substance

i'll stick with the [pdf-adobe acrobat reader needed] increase in federal revenues as % of gdp as evidence of tax rate cuts being stimulative to federal coffers

¶ - nitish @ 2:44 PM