Posted on 09/29/2009 8:53:16 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Bush is out of office, so now are we supposed to say — “Laffer’s Fault!”?
I don't think so.
Stopped reading his blather right there.
Let’s all kneel in prayer and be thankful Obama is in charge now. SARC/
Hey, Reagan did his part. He even shut down the government at one point.
On top of that, he started the “President’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control” — the Grace Commission. This found over $400 Billion in savings.
Unfortunately, even on this, the Congress did not act on the vast majority of it.
Blame Congress, not Reagan. Heck, no sitting president has EVER introduced a spending bill before Congress. All the president can do is use his bully pulpit, sign, or veto.
Screw this author.
I thought the primary architect of Reagan’s debt bomb was Rep. Thomas P. “Tip” o’Neill (D-Mass.), who pushed pork-laden bills through Congress during the Reagan years.
Hunh!? This is so abusrd, I might have to read it...
http://uspolitics.about.com/od/usgovernment/l/bl_party_division_2.htm
Exactly!
The President proposes, the Congress disposes.
Someone set up us the bomb.
I’m sure this author would contrast this with the “fiscal responsibliity under Clinton.” No mention at all of who was in charge of Congress during those years.
Zig.
I do take issue with this - "Arthur Laffer, the primary architect of Reagan’s debt bomb that we are currently trying to defuse". Reagan's debt bomb? The House is in charge of the purse strings. Not the President.
Reagan basically shifted expenditures around. He increased military spending from 22.7% to a high of 28.1% of the annual budget (4.9% to 6.2% of GDP). While spending on Human Resources (ie.SocSec, Medicare, Education), along with Physical Resources (ie. energy, commerce, transportation), went down under Reagan.
The problem is associated with Reagan having cut taxes without the House cutting overall spending. Tax cuts without spending cuts gives you larger deficits and an ever growing debt. Even as it was, Reagan fought the liberal establishment agenda to a standstill and was able to slowdown the growth of the social welfare state.
Doesn’t the House have the power of the purse? Hasn’t it always been that way?
Yep.
I oughta know I have a very dim-bulb living across the street who loves to spout off inaccuracies at neighborhood parties and then finds herself being corrected factually and then asked for the source of her information.....btw it's usually NPR (we usually laugh and translate the name to National Propaganda Radio), nuff said.
There was this little thing called the Cold War. We won. It wasn’t free. Neither were all the vote buying programs our Congresscritters came up with. In economics this is usually called the Guns-Butter debate. Reagan was forced to do both because the Republicrats wouldn’t cut the pork. He did the right thing, but that’s not to say it was the best we could do.
this drum is beiong beaten by the current round of oligarchs trying to justify the next rape of the middle class they’re trying to organize.
Laffer is exactly right. The Great Depression was caused, more than anything else, by the Smoot-Hawley Tariff on top of tight money. And there is not a reasonable economist out there who doesn’t know that.
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