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"This debt explosion,” Stockman writes, “has resulted not from big spending by the Democrats, but instead the Republican Party’s embrace, about three decades ago, of the insidious doctrine that deficits don’t matter if they result from tax cuts.”
Originally Posted by WTF
You've noted that budget bills originate in the House. Which party controlled the House during the entirety of the Reagan Administration? That's a rhetorical question. You know the answer. Could that partly explain von Hayek's comment, that you quoted,
Reagan thinks it is impossible to persuade Congress that expenditures must be reduced unless one creates deficits so large that absolutely everyone becomes convinced that no more money can be spent.” Thus, he went on, it was up to Reagan to “persuade Congress of the necessity of spending reductions by means of an immense deficit. Unfortunately, he has not succeeded!!!
I know you think that's unimportant, because you believe spending doesn't matter. Instead we need to raise taxes. That's classic Modern Monetary Theory.
During the Reagan and Clinton administrations, inflation was brought under control, the middle class made great strides, taxes were cut (including the capital gains tax under Clinton), the Soviets were forced to abandon the cold war and allow Democracy to take root in Eastern Europe because they didn't have enough money to compete in the arms race, and at the end, the budget was balanced. Do you know what the net federal debt was as a % of GDP when Clinton left office? It was 32%. That's a reasonable number, one to be happy with.
And yes, Bush and the Republicans, and Obama and the Democrats turned on the spigots. The Iraq War was a total waste. There's lots of blame to go around for the 2008/2009 recession, and our anemic recovery coming out of it, which resulted in higher deficits as a result of bailouts, stimulus spending and lower government revenues. Who do you blame? A lot of people and institutions -- politicians, regulators, mortgage companies, and investment banks among others. And perhaps most of all Americans who thought it was reasonable to buy $500,000 houses on $50,000 per year paychecks.
And yes deficits and debt increased hugely during the Trump and Biden administrations, over past years, mostly as a result of COVID. And whose fault was that? Arguably Democrats a bit more than Republicans, considering the $1.9 trillion they threw into the American Rescue Plan, which mainly succeeded in supercharging inflation. Not a single Republican voted for the ARP.