General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFor all of you criticizing the Democratic Party leadership, especially on economics, consider this
Remember the Two Santa Claus theory: http://www.commondreams.org/views/2009/01/26/two-santa-clauses-or-how-republican-party-has-conned-america-thirty-years
"By 1974, Jude Wanniski had had enough. The Democrats got to play Santa Claus when they passed out Social Security and Unemployment checks both programs of the New Deal as well as when their "big government" projects like roads, bridges, and highways were built giving a healthy union paycheck to construction workers. They kept raising taxes on businesses and rich people to pay for things, which didn't seem to have much effect at all on working people (wages were steadily going up, in fact), and that made them seem like a party of Robin Hoods, taking from the rich to fund programs for the poor and the working class. Americans loved it. And every time Republicans railed against these programs, they lost elections."
"Democrats, he said, had been able to be "Santa Clauses" by giving people things from the largesse of the federal government. Republicans could do that, too spending could actually increase. Plus, Republicans could be double Santa Clauses by cutting people's taxes! For working people it would only be a small token a few hundred dollars a year on average but would be heavily marketed. And for the rich it would amount to hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts. The rich, in turn, would use that money to import or build more stuff to market, thus increasing supply and stimulating the economy. And that growth in the economy would mean that the people still paying taxes would pay more because they were earning more.
There was no way, Wanniski said, that the Democrats could ever win again. They'd have to be anti-Santas by raising taxes, or anti-Santas by cutting spending. Either one would lose them elections."
"When Reagan rolled out Supply Side Economics in the early 80s, dramatically cutting taxes while exploding (mostly military) spending, there was a moment when it seemed to Wanniski and Laffer that all was lost. The budget deficit exploded and the country fell into a deep recession the worst since the Great Depression and Republicans nationwide held their collective breath. But David Stockman came up with a great new theory about what was going on they were "starving the beast" of government by running up such huge deficits that Democrats would never, ever in the future be able to talk again about national health care or improving Social Security and this so pleased Alan Greenspan, the Fed Chairman, that he opened the spigots of the Fed, dropping interest rates and buying government bonds, producing a nice, healthy goose to the economy. Greenspan further counseled Reagan to dramatically increase taxes on people earning under $37,800 a year by increasing the Social Security (FICA/payroll) tax, and then let the government borrow those newfound hundreds of billions of dollars off-the-books to make the deficit look better than it was."
"Ed Crane, president of the Libertarian CATO Institute, noted in a memo that year: "When Jack Kemp, Newt Gingich, Vin Weber, Connie Mack and the rest discovered Jude Wanniski and Art Laffer, they thought they'd died and gone to heaven. In supply-side economics they found a philosophy that gave them a free pass out of the debate over the proper role of government. Just cut taxes and grow the economy: government will shrink as a percentage of GDP, even if you don't cut spending. That's why you rarely, if ever, heard Kemp or Gingrich call for spending cuts, much less the elimination of programs and departments.""
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Along with this article, this shows how we are still under siege by ultra rich right wingers led by an army of evil geniuses.
grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)say eliminate all income tax under 1,000,000, and only tax capital gains and corporations.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)and loyal Reagan/Bush voter who made herself wildly wealthy under these destructive policies which she thought were wonderful policies. So yeah, our leadership and theirs are people who have all been on the wrong side of every issue most of my life.
In my view, those who voted for Reagan because they liked supply side economics were just stupid and greedy. The fact that they were also voting for anti choice policies, anti gay policies, for nasty foreign policy, for racist rhetoric, Union busting and the gutting of the middle class makes it worse. The fact that they voted for Reagan a second time with thousands dead from AIDS without a word from Reagan is absolutely damning.
Show me a person who voted for trickle down, anti choice, anti gay policies and wanted to keep doing nothing in the face of a global pandemic and I will show you an idiot. I do not vote for idiots. Next!