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2010 - Supply-cide Economics
My reading of contemporary
Republican thinking is that there is no chance of any attempt to arrest
adverse long-term fiscal trends should they return to power. Moreover,
since the Republicans have
no interest in doing anything sensible, the Democrats will gain nothing
from trying to do much either.
That is the lesson Democrats have to draw from the Clinton era's
successful frugality, which merely
gave George W. Bush the opportunity to make massive (irresponsible and
unsustainable) tax cuts.
In practice, then, nothing will be done...
Supply-side economics transformed Republicans from a minority party
into a majority party.
It allowed them to promise lower taxes, lower deficits and, in effect,
unchanged spending.
Why should people not like this combination? Who does not like a free
lunch?...
This is extraordinarily dangerous. The danger does not arise from the
fiscal deficits of today,
but the attitudes to fiscal policy, over the long run, of one of the
two main parties. Those radical
conservatives (a small minority, I hope) who want to destroy the credit
of the US federal government
may succeed. If so, that would be the end of the US era of global
dominance. The destruction of
fiscal credibility could be the outcome of the policies of the party
that considers itself the most patriotic.
So it's Grover Norquist in reverse.
He wanted to get government "small
enough to drown in a bathtub."
Bush went the other way.
He spent so much money, there's nothing left for Medicare or Social
Security.
We continue to borrow money to give
to the super-rich.
We continue to pay interest on money we're giving to the super-rich.
If only we had a Democratic president and a Democratic
congress.
Think how great that'd be...