let me go to arthur laffer. [inaudible conversations] >> worth noting that 70 percent of small business owners described the federal government as hostile to them. is there one single regulation to back no. have we ever repealed a regulation? not that i am aware of. that is a pretty heavy burden. >> so tax reform has been mentioned. i here a lot of talk about it. i don't here a lot of specifics. the growth in the 80s and 90s had much to do with broad-based tax reform, lower rates, broader base. what are you thinking? >> first week, 70 percent of finding the federal government hostile, the other 30% are selling to the federal government. sorry, government. sorry, i had to add that. let me, if i can, we have had lots and lots of years of experience in this country. 175 other countries for which we have enormous reservoir data, 50 states that have been performing experiments. we have huge amounts of experiential base on which to look at success and failure and economies. if you look at the conclusion comes out, to

what does arthur laffer and marilyn monroe have in common? they both achieved their celebrity status because of their curves. [laughter] i'm not going to ask for a vote of institute -- added to respect for arthur. arthur laffer. [applause] >> thank you very much, tom. i had the pleasure of introducing tom not long ago when he got his award here from the manhattan institute, so it was a real pleasure in reverse. you are actually even a little bit funnier that i was. just a little bit. do any of you find this was unusual at all? all? i'm from cleveland, ohio, and i don't know if you saw a late effects. they are getting all sorts of records. i think in buffalo it got up to 75 inches of snow. i remember long ago, do any of you remember jack kemp lacks remember jack? [applause] i remember jack. i called jack. he was in buffalo and i asked him, jack, what's the weather like in buffalo? he said, it's clear and still. it snows clear to your ass and it is still coming down. [laughter] so let me if i can have a little fun. you might if i have fun with p

in fact, he considers himself to be something of an accolade of arthur laffer's. so there's actually a lot of economic support for this. i'll conclude by saying this, if the topic is now not going to be denial but it's going to be the costs and benefits of climate action i'm ready to have that conversation all day long. let's just make sure that it's the whole conversation, not just the half of the conversation that looks at what losing their subsidy means for the big oil companies, the big coal companies, the koch brothers and the rest of the polluters. a lot of my colleagues only look at one side of the ledger. how this affects the fossil fuel lobby. if you look at the whole ledger, if you look at both sides when you look at all the evidence, it tells you one thing and that is that the cost of climate change are already here. they're showing up in our lives in innumerable ways but carry real economic costs and that carry real costs in terms of quality of life and our identity as a country. and in fact, they may overwhelm us by centuries end. looking at all the e

and former reagan former reagan economic advisor arthur laffer. this is an hour and a half. >> good morning. welcome to the heritage foundation. we appreciate those joining us on our website as well as c-span during his presentation. i would ask everyone here and now secured be so if you would be so client to thought so kind to check the cell phones. our internet internet viewers are always welcome to send questions or comments at any time simply e-mailing the speaker. we will have a question and answers and ask that you wait for the microphone for the convenience of record. opening our program this morning and making a special welcome to our guests is the current president of the heritage foundation former senator jim dement. >> thank you. merry christmas, everyone. merry christmas to all who are tuning into the heritage network or through c-span. this is a. this is a great day to come together and talk about the power of ideas. we have a super panel here today, and it is our job to help to shape the debate, build consensus around ideas that we w

arthur laf isf the head of laffer associates. comingve known him for up to 40 years. he fathered supply-side economics and i believe he is one of the most important economic voices in the 20th century. [applause] finally, as you know, steve moore, another head economist at heritage and an old and dear friend of mine who has held many positions. i won't say most notably but importantly as a member of the editorial board of the "wall street journal" for many years pumping out exactly the kind of onff that we need pumped out the benefits of free market economics. i can only assume that a large percentage of congress does not -- does not have reading skills because of their bad education background and the failure of the merc and system has contributed to their failure to read "the wall street journal" editorials which steve moore road and we would be better if they had. without further i do, i will be the moderator. i will let each of the panelists speak for about five minutes or so and then we will go back and forth. i will ask questions and we will have cross talk, a v