The cut to the 39.6 per cent top marginal rate was included specifically to woo back the old Reagan economists. But even the supply-siders who supported the governor feared that he would not be able to make good his promise. This was because the economic weather was inauspicious for tax cuts. To be sure, the deficit had narrowed since Poppy's day. But there was still the problem of the good times of the 1990s.
Tax cuts are much harder to sell during good times.
Political opponents tend to dismiss them as a sop to the rich, who are already gaining from prosperity. Economists mutter that they are unnecessary or, worse, that they represent a dangerous stimulus. But tax cuts in bad times are another matter. The support of orthodox economists has always been crucial for tax-cutting legislation in America. Ronald Reagan would not have succeeded in his 1980s legislation without them.