Former Sen. Phil Gramm hearkened back to President Ronald Reagan to propose a repeat of his policy of tax cuts and deregulation to lift the economy.
"When Reagan left office, real federal revenue was more than 19 percent higher than it was the day of his first inauguration," Gramm, who chaired the Senate Banking Committee in 2001, wrote a column in The Wall Street Journal on Friday.
"A major recession had been overcome, inflation had been broken, the tax code had been indexed to eliminate bracket creep, and the largest tax cut of the postwar era had been implemented. The Reagan tax cuts and the boom they created stand as the most successful policy initiative and recovery of the postwar era."
Although Republicans are looking to pass a tax reform bill soon, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told the Wisconsin State Journal Friday that he plans to introduce the bill in September, with the hopes of having it pass the lower chamber by the end of the year.
"This history is important because it shows the power of tax cuts and deregulation — exactly the proposals being debated today," Gramm continued.
"The Republican tax-reform program combines the 1981 tax cuts and the 1986 tax reform with a deregulatory effort through legislation, agency rule-making and executive action constituting the most dramatic deregulatory effort since the Carter-Reagan reforms."
He credits President Jimmy Carter for leading "the most significant deregulatory effort in the postwar era," which Reagan "built on . . . by eliminating price controls on domestic oil and natural gas. These actions enhanced overall economic efficiency and amplified the effects of the 1981 tax cut and the 1986 tax reform."