Krijack,

You're absolutely right. The Laffer Curve shows that a a certain marginal tax rate, you will begin to see less tax revenue even with a higher marginal tax rate. The key is to stay on the left side of the Laffer Curve, without going to the point where tax increases lead to less tax revenue.

Unfortunately, there is really no way to know where you are on the curve, other than to increase marginal tax rates and see if tax revenues rise or fall.

As far as current tax receipts being higher even WITH tax cuts, the reason isn't clear at all, as much as GOP fans would like to believe it is. The confounding factor is government spending. With billions of additional government spending over the past 8 years, there is no way to tell if the higher tax receipts are due to decreasing tax rates, or simply the product of taxes being paid on the billions that the government has pumped into the economy over Bush's last 2 terms.

It's not a simple issue.

What IS simple is that less government spending equals less taxes required. That much is an indisputable fact. So which candidate is going to get spending under control, and how?