Before ‘W’ got in and made changes in taxes and military spending we were paying off the debt. Bush said the deficits that resulted from his changes were “extremely positive news.” (Yes, that is in quotes, click the link.) Before that Reagan also caused deficits on purpose. He called it “starve the beast” — as if democracy is a “beast” that needs to be killed. So don’t fall for all this deficit hysteria, let’s just fix what caused the deficits and move on.

This Deficit Story Can’t Be Repeated Often Enough

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The Reagan people said it too, back when they started the massive deficit spending. It was the plan: force the country into massive debt, “starve the beast,” and use that to force the government out of business, or at least to be “small enough to drown in a bathtub.” They forced the tax cuts and Reagan said this was “cutting the government’s allowance.” The point was to use revenue cutbacks to force government to shrink, to get out of the way of the 1%.

Now that government is very much out of the way of the 1% we are seeing how things work out when the 1% dominate everything.

It was the plan. They forced these deficits on us on purpose. Reagan called it “strategic deficits.” It was a “shock doctrine” tactic, to get us to panic, and then move in with their “solutions.” So we are arguing about how much to cut out of the things We, the People do for our benefit, which the wealthy and their corporations get vastly wealthier and more powerful.

Low taxes on the rich = less money to use to do things that benefit We, the People. Higher military budget = less money to use to do things that benefit We, the People.