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Keynsian would argue tax cut good but only because of the recession...
The Keynsian argument was that to maximise growth you cut taxes during a recession and you raise taxes during a growth spurt. That is the best way to achieve sustained growth. Deficits are good in a recession because they will stimulate the economy and they are bad in a growth period because they will suck up private investment damaging growth. So tax cuts in a growing economy can lead to less growth.
The Supply Sider would argue that as long as the government is sucking up too much revenue from the population it always better to cut taxes. So one should cut taxes if you are above a certain level of taxation regardless of whether you are in a recession or a growth spurt.
So in a recession both the Supply Siders and the Keynsian would argue for a tax cut. So you could argue from a Keynsian perspective the tax cut was the right idea, but only because we were in a recession. So from a Keynsian perspective you might say that the growth just confirms Keynsian theory and not Supply Side, but then again, the Keynsian would still argue that the cut was the right thing to do. Now that we are growing the Keynsian would argue for a tax increase to reduce the deficit.
The economists that argue against the tax cut, argue that the deficit created is so bad that any growth the tax cut might create would be nullified by the crowding out. In other words the tax cut would lead to less growth because of the crowding out caused by the resulting deficits. They would argue that the growth we have achieved is part of the natural cycle and would have been even more pronounced if we hadn't had the tax cut. So the tax cut reduces growth.
But if you agree that tax cut lead to more growth then it was a success because we were in a recession and the most important thing was to pull us out of the recession. All economists would agree on that. The issue is did the tax cut helps us out of the recession.
Milton Friedman thinks growth mainly depends on the monetary supply and regulation. Too much money in the system and too much regulation equals less growth. So he is more for cutting government spending than in cutting taxes. I don't know what Milton Friedmans position was, but I doubt he was a big fan of the tax cut because without the concomitant spending cuts he probably wouldn't think it is good for the economy. Keynes argues that in a recession you cut taxes and spend more to intentionally create deficits. Friedman never thinks that increased spending, and increased deficits, is a good idea. But as for his position on the recent tax cuts, that is just speculation on my part.
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