Laffer curve dinner meeting at the Two Continents Restaurant in the Washington Hotel with Arthur Laffer, Wanniski, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and his deputy press secretary Grace-Marie Arnett. In this meeting, Laffer, arguing against President Gerald Ford's tax increase, reportedly sketched the curve on a napkin to illustrate the concept. Cheney did not accept the idea immediately, but it caught the imaginations of those present. Laffer professes no recollection of this napkin, but writes: "I used the so-called Laffer Curve all the time in my classes and with anyone else who would listen to me". There are historical precedents other than those
From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs can be found in the Guilford Covenant in 1639: Some scholars trace the origin of the phrase to the New Testament. In Acts of the Apostles the lifestyle of the community of believers in Jerusalem is described as communal (without individual possession), and uses the phrase ""distribution was made unto every man according as he had need"" (): However, other scholars disagree with this, and claim that the phrase 'from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs' has a non-religious origin, in 'the Roman legal concept of obligation in solidum' The Roman legal concept of obligation