Musing on Laffer Curve and Government Size

I attended a brain storm session with some officers of the public sector together with some scholars and a few professionals of various background sometime during the week. While it was not specifically mentioned, many suggestions seemed to take the Laffer Curve as embodying truth. As a libertarian, I was led to think more clearly about the contradictions that inhere from supporting tax cuts as a mechanism of raising more revenue.

My personal view is that at all times, it is more preferable to consider the lower marginal tax rate in designing policy. This means that while I may be reluctant, policy choices may sometimes require raising the tax rates as a matter of fact. What I found disturbing is that a fiscal conservative should be careful in arguing that more taxes follow from lowering tax rates because of the assumed rise in total tax collection. To my mind, this is inconsistent because if that were true, then the rise in revenues would mean that lower taxes lead to bigger government. And that's why I maintain that lower taxes as supported by libertarian thinking is more defensible because it merely argue for letting individuals or corporations to keep a greater share of their incomes. Anything beyond that is to overstate the need for lower taxation.