The problem before the group was the size of Trump’s tax plan. Irresponsibly gargantuan, regressive tax cuts are standard-issue policy for the Republican Party. The concern is that Trump’s plan would hemorrhage so many trillions of dollars of revenue it could trigger a fiscal crisis and could not be passed by Congress.

Moore, along with fellow supply-side zealots Lawrence Kudlow and Arthur Laffer, has proposed revisions. Their idea is to save revenue by cutting out the parts of Trump’s tax cut that benefit middle-class earners, and focus the money on where they believe it’s most needed: on the top tax rates. These changes would be in keeping with the conviction among orthodox Republicans that the tax rate on the richest earners is the key determinate of economic growth. That the events of each of the last three presidencies have utterly confounded this theory has not diminished its appeal to the faithful, who regard the Laffer curve as a kind of theological revelation. It does not hurt that the theology has the side effect of making very influential people very rich.

One of the fervent disciples of supply-side economics is Paul Ryan, who was raised on its tenets and has never questioned its core principles. Ryan is an advocate of the conventional Republican donor-class agenda, which distrusts Trump’s political style and his nationalistic policy lurches. But when Ryan and Trump met, they found common ground on the major priorities Ryan cares about, especially cutting taxes for the rich.