"If you lower the tax by X amount on an industry or individual and how do you get X amount of increased tax revenue?"

You can't be serious, right????  Never had an econ. class, huh?  Never heard of the Laffer curve?

Yes, I’m serious.

Yes, I’ve taken several econ courses.

Yes, I’ve heard of the Laffer curve. It became commonly know as the laugher curve by the time Reagan left office, totally discredited by reputable economists.

I said "go through the math for me". There is no math here, just assumptions and statements based on misplaced faith.

Put some numbers on it.

For example if they lower a rich guys income tax rate from 39% to 35.5%. Then a person having $1,000,000 earned income pays $355,000 in taxes rather than $390,000. Saves $35,000 and can use the money to hire one guy while the government lays off one guy. Where does the $35,000 increased tax revenue come from? Or he could invest it in T-bills and hire nobody. Still no $35,000 tax revenue increase.

Now give us some numbers in the blanks in your scenario.

I'll assume you really don't know the answer and I'll offer one explanation:  Because the small business (or large business) has less (how much less?)of their income confiscated by the government as taxes, they are able to invest more (how much more?) $ in their business and hire more (how many more?) people.  All these people are now paying taxes, where before they weren't.  Wallah: resulting in more (how much more?)tax revenue.   In addition, because more people are employed, (how much more?) purchases and income is increased (by how much?)across the board.  More people employed = more descretionary spending = increased incomes = more taxes paid. 

You can find the other places where information s missing.

 In addition, other tax revenue, besides income tax revenue also increases (gasoline, sales tax, etc., etc.).  It's really a snowball effect.  This has actually been proven in the past.  The reason debt is increased is not because of lack of tax revenue, but  because of overwhelming increases in spending.

When taxes are increased it is an impediment to investment and employment.  There probably is an ideal tax rate that does maximize tax returns, probably somewhere around 20%, but this varies with each particular situation.

The 20% is arrived at how?   I think it is some number a guy like Limbaugh picked out something.

HiRoad, methinks msmal is trying to be difficult, do you? Msmal does not want to accept your info and if you went thru all those steps she/he would still fault your efforts. So unless you enjoy banging your head against a brick wall - don't bother. If we thought it would enlighten then it would be worth it. Msmal should have the name Mary, Mary Quite Contrary.