Satan, Art Laffer and John Rentoul

We baristas at CoffeeHouse aim to serve all our customers, so I’m happy that I have made John Rentoul remind himself that he is “left wing really.” And why? Because in my (admittedly grumpy) write-up of Cameron’s press conference yesterday I said that using words like “Laffer” to describe the pernicious effects of high tax rates makes it sound like an obscure argument. JFK was cutting taxes for the rich and arguing that a “rising tide lifts all boats” well before Art Laffer doodled on a cocktail napkin. And it’s an ancient idea, I said, which you can trace back to the book of Deuteronomy if you want..

Uh-oh. My mistake. I used this because it was the oldest example (about 700BC) arguing for a low level of taxation (it talks about a 10% tithe) but of course Deuteronomy is also a book of the Bible. I forgot that any Biblical reference flicks a switch in some elements of the left, who see it as proof that someone is bonkers.