Given the frenzied shouting that is going to accompany the current calls for tax reform we need to remind ourselves of one rather important thing – the Reagan tax reforms worked.

By this I don’t mean that Art Laffer is always and everywhere right, that tax cuts pay for themselves, not that that’s what he actually said anyway. Rather, they succeeded in bringing our tax rates roughly to where any further increases will not do much to increase government revenue, and they forced much of the compensation that high-earners were receiving in the form of untaxed perks back into being reported and taxed as personal income.