REAGANOMICS LOOMS LARGE OVER BUSINESS CONFAB.

Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Staff Writer

SIMI VALLEY - Remember those swell economic times we enjoyed during President Clinton's second term? Thank former President Reagan for the prosperity, a panel of experts and a former GOP vice presidential candidate concluded Friday.

In fact, Clinton's first whack at putting his imprint on the nation's economy, which included a tax increase, was such a disaster that the Republican Party seized Congress in 1994. It was only then that Clinton saw the light and cut taxes, thus embracing ``Reaganomics.''

Former vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp, co-director of Empower America, pointed out that the economic platform featuring tax cuts that is being put forth by President Bush should ring familiar.

``It's Ronald Reagan's policy to cut tax rates across the board and he (Bush) is defending it with vigor,'' Kemp said during the forum that attracted more than 300 people to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

Another common bond is that neither Reagan nor Bush believes that dying should be a taxable event.

These are familiar themes for Kemp, a former quarterback for the Buffalo Bills and former congressman representing that city. And his speech set the tone for the morning session, which ended up being a tribute to the former president who recently celebrated his 90th birthday.

This part of the forecast, sponsored by Investors Business Daily, was decidedly short on the prognostication and long on remembering.

Lawrence Kudlow, chief U.S. economist for ING Barings LLC, a Netherlands-based global merchant bank, said he believes that time has not diminished the Reagan years and only enhanced the ex-president's legacy.

``Twenty years after he came to office, I think his influence is even greater,'' Kudlow said.