move ahead on a overhaul in the trump administration s first month. it is something that republicans in congress have been advocates and planning for years. economist art laffer is chairman of laugher associates and was an economic advisor to president ronald reagan. he joins me from nashville. arthur, great to see you again. good to see you, paul. thank you, it s fun. paul: stock market rally since election day has been big. what are investors looking for anticipating? i think they re anticipating tax rate reform. i think they re anticipating a lower corporate tax for sure. when you discount those profits coming forward it leads to a fairly attractive stock market. i think this stock market reflects their optimism about the future. paul: should which be concerned there is a stall in the rally last three or four weeks? not really. we had a similar situation when reagan came into office and the market then went way down, as you may know in august of 1982.
the market hit its trough. it was down from reagan coming into office to august of 1982. then boom, it you had the biggest boom of all time. paul: is corporate tax reform and tax reform more broadly, is that for you the centerpiece of this growth agenda. is that one thing they have to get done to insure growth? he really needs tax reform, you do, but obama care is serious regulations are serious. i hope he symbolically gets rid of the death tax. that would be a shot across the bow we ll have a major change in policy going forward. the death tax is just disgusting. you collect no money and put barriers everywhere. corporate tax down to 15%, paul, will go a long way bringing back prosperity. paul: trump s tax rate is 20%, excuse me, republican rate is 20%. strum s is 15. if they do 20% can you live with that? of course i can. it is such a low bar. let me say, paul, this
move ahead on a overhaul in the trump administration s first month. it is something that republicans in congress have been advocates and planning for years. economist art laffer is chairman of laugher associates and was an economic advisor to president ronald reagan. he joins me from nashville. arthur, great to see you again. good to see you, paul. thank you, it s fun. paul: stock market rally since election day has been big. what are investors looking for anticipating? i think they re anticipating tax rate reform. i think they re anticipating a lower corporate tax for sure. when you discount those profits coming forward it leads to a fairly attractive stock market. i think this stock market reflects their optimism about the future. paul: should which be concerned there is a stall in the rally last three or four weeks? not really. we had a similar situation when reagan came into office and the market then went way down, as you may know in august of 1982.
the market hit its trough. it was down from reagan coming into office to august of 1982. then boom, it you had the biggest boom of all time. paul: is corporate tax reform and tax reform more broadly, is that for you the centerpiece of this growth agenda. is that one thing they have to get done to insure growth? he really needs tax reform, you do, but obama care is serious regulations are serious. i hope he symbolically gets rid of the death tax. that would be a shot across the bow we ll have a major change in policy going forward. the death tax is just disgusting. you collect no money and put barriers everywhere. corporate tax down to 15%, paul, will go a long way bringing back prosperity. paul: trump s tax rate is 20%, excuse me, republican rate is 20%. strum s is 15. if they do 20% can you live with that? of course i can. it is such a low bar. let me say, paul, this
back in august of 1982, president ronald reagan needed to counter the deficit and raise taxes. president reagan had an edge that might seem unthinkable today. a reasonable opposition party in congress. then the house democrats were led by thomas p. tip o neill, a massachusetts democrat who want to the floor to whip republicans and question their loyalty to their own president. are you going to follow the leader that brought you here? are you going to run, i ask you, to just think of that. president is right. we need this tax bill. i ask for your vote. o neal often said he disagreed with president reagan but they compromised on big economic plans for the country. that was back when compromise wasn t a dirty word. to the republican party. msnbc s chris matthews writes about the historic relationship in his book tip and the