Starve the Beast

Why pass a massive tax cut when employment is high and unemployment are low? Bruce Bartlett, former domestic policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan explains. From "The Washington Post":



"Because for decades, conservative intellectuals have pushed for big tax cuts; less to grow the economy and more because they want to “starve the beast.” They want to force a major overall spending cut that would be a political non-starter without first passing a tax cut that creates a deficit so large, something must be done about it. Spending cuts must be enacted, then, as they would be presented as the only way to pay for the already passed tax cut’s lost revenue."



https://is.gd/LRwJ1x

Tax Cuts and Revenue Growth

We often hear the republicans claim that tax cuts result in revenue growth. To support their claim they've offered up a graphic from Bush's Treasury Department. One can't blame Bush's people for highlighting his tax cut of 2003 and suggest that this somehow caused the curve to begin its upward climb.

It's interesting to note, though, that the Bush people didn't highlight what happened to revenues after his 2001 tax cut. So, I helped them with the grapic by adding the black arrow. As you can see, after the Bush tax cut of 2001, revenues fell. Their theory doesn't hold up to scrutiny - according to their own evidence.

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