CBS’s Stephen Colbert kicked off his week of Democratic guests on Monday by welcoming Clinton-era Labor Secretary Robert Reich to The Late Show to promote his new memoir. During their conversation, neither man displayed an understanding of the proper definition of a tax cut, while Reich smeared former President Ronald Reagan for allegedly making the country less inclusive for women and black people.
Colbert declared, “There may have been a justification for these tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and adding $4 trillion to the debt. I didn't ever really hear one. I didn't even hear the, sort of, perfunctory, like, ‘Oh, well, you know, the Laffer Curve and the more you cut, the more revenue goes up.’”
He then asked, “Did you hear any justification?”
After Reich claimed that he did not, he added, “It's important. You know, we've had trickle-down economics since Ronald Reagan, and nothing has ever trickled down.”
Colbert then quipped, “Oh, something has trickled down.”
Back in the real world, an extension of the current tax rate is not a cut. The original tax cut law was set to expire, so while the tax rate is lower than it would’ve been if Congress had done nothing, it is not lower than it has been since 2017.
Later, Reich was explaining that “My America” began in 1946 and that the point of his book is to try to explain how the Trump phenomenon happened. That led Colbert to marvel, “Really? Right after the war, right after the boys came back, we stopped paying attention to, sort of, the advances of the New Deal?”
After joking that you have to read the book to get the answer, Reich tried to smear Reagan, “Let me be a little bit specific, and that is that it was in the late '70s, early '80s. It was Ronald Reagan. We’re we had this kind of U-turn. We were making progress on women's rights, on the rights of black people, on making the country more inclusive, until Reagan. Then we had this gigantic turnabout. I think that for the next years, we have just gone backwards.”
Of course, Colbert never bothered to have Reich explain how the women and black people have been excluded from America since the Reagan era. For Reich, that was probably a good thing because any attempt to answer that question would have led him to look even more ridiculous.
Here is a transcript for the August 4-taped show:
CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
8/5/2025
12:24 AM ET
STEPHEN COLBERT: There may have been a justification for these tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and adding $4 trillion to the debt. I didn't ever really hear one. I didn't even hear the, sort of, perfunctory, like, “Oh, well, you know, the Laffer Curve and the more you cut, the more revenue goes up.” Did you hear any justification?
ROBERT REICH: I listened carefully—
COLBERT: Yes.
REICH: — I heard none.
COLBERT: “We want to do it,” is all I heard.
REICH: “We want to do it. We want to—” It's important. You know, we've had trickle-down economics since Ronald Reagan, and nothing has ever trickled down.
COLBERT: Oh, something has trickled down.
REICH: That’s true.
…
COLBERT: Really? Right after the war, right after the boys came back, we stopped paying attention to, sort of, the advances of the New Deal?
REICH: No, let me be more specific. Well, you have to read the book. I'm not going to tell you. No, well, okay. Let me be a little bit specific, and that is that it was in the late '70s, early '80s. It was Ronald Reagan. We’re we had this kind of U-turn. We were making progress on women's rights, on the rights of black people, on making the country more inclusive, until Reagan. Then we had this gigantic turnabout. I think that for the next years, we have just gone backwards.
