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Reagan economic guru: Biden's $3.5T bill is 'catastrophe, will hurt economy for generations'

The federal deficit and debt-to-GDP ratio are "unprecedented in peacetime in the United States' history," said Art Laffer. "It puts us in third-world country status."

Published: October 14, 2021 11:55pm

Updated: October 15, 2021 11:57pm

The Democrats' $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill "is a catastrophe and will hurt the economy for generations to come," warns Art Laffer, father of the supply side revolution in economics.

Laffer joined Just the News founder John Solomon and Heritage Action For America on Thursday for a special called "Spending Gimmick: The True Cost of Biden's Agenda." 

The current size of the federal deficit and debt-to-GDP ratio are "unprecedented in peacetime in the United States' history," said Laffer. "It puts us in third-world country status." 

The $3.5 trillion spending bill will cost a lot more than it's purported to, especially with the "unfunded liabilities of government programs," predicted President Ronald Reagan's economics guru.

Dismissing the bill as just "giveaways and redistribution," he said, "Redistribution occurs when you take from someone who has a little bit more, and you give to someone who has a little bit less."

"By taking from someone who has a little bit more, you reduce that person's incentives to produce, and that person will produce a little bit less," Laffer explained. "By giving to someone who has a little bit less, you provide that person with an alternative source of income other than working, and that person, too, will produce a little bit less.  

"The theorem here — and it's math, it's not left-wing, right-wing, Republican, Democrat, liberal or conservative — it's a theorem, it's math. Whenever you redistribute income, you always reduce total income, period."

The economics of the mammoth reconciliation bill are "exactly the wrong thing you want for a prosperous future of this country," Laffer said.

"I don't understand why any Dems would vote for this bill," he continued. "It's bad for Democrats. It's bad for the poor. It's bad for minorities, the undereducated, the disenfranchised. It's a bad bill for everyone in this country."

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