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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsVoodoo Economics
Voodoo Economics, as George H.W. Bush named it in 1980, is what caused most of our national debt. It came from Wall Street and goes by the name "supply-side economics." Here's where you can find out about it.
More Voodoo-Economics Information:
National Debt Graph by President: http://zfacts.com/p/318.html
In 1981, the supply siders commandeered the Reagan Presidency and employed their Voodoo economics, as Bush senior had called it in 1980. He was saying that tax cuts would not increase government revenues. As you can see above, the Voodoo failed just as Bush predicted, and the supply siders turned a 32-year winning streak into a debt disaster that continues to this day. For 20-years, under Reagan and the Bushes, the national debt increased compared to GDP every single year. In most other years it decreased. Twenty years in a row can't be just an accident, but to understand you need to learn the voodoo strategy.
Congress: Not Democratic, and Not to Blame
Conservatives are quite embarrassed by this performance, so they have invented a cover story: The Democratic Congress did it. Nice try. But for 12 of the 20 years the Congress was not Democratic. Also, presidents can veto, and when it was Democratic, Congress passed smaller budgets on average than the Republican Presidents asked for. Presidents propose the budget, and they have the most influence.
http://zfacts.com/p/57.html
Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)Tennessee Gal
(6,160 posts)is wrong to blame this on a Democratic Congress.
As the figure shows, Reagan and Bush senior got almost exactly the budgets they requested in each of their 12 budget years.
Reagan:
The first budget passed by all Republicans and a few conservative Southern Democrats.
This increased the debt by $144 Billion.
The next 5 budgets passed by the Republican Senate and signed by Reagan.
The last 2 budgets passed by a Democratic Congress
Totalled slightly less than Reagan requested.
G. H. W. Bush:
Democratic Congresses under Bush passed smaller budgets than he requested in 3 out of 4 years.
These four Democratic budgets totalled $14.6 Billion less than Bush requested.
G. W. Bush:
The first two budgets Senate was split 50/50 and the House was Democratic.
Bipartisan and totalled $20 Billion less than Bush requested.
The biggest cause of deficits was Bush's enormous tax cut, mainly for the rich.
The next 4 budgets the Congress was solid Republican.
The last 2 budgets Bush vetoed modest Democratic attempts at spending.
Cary
(11,746 posts)"Supply-side economics" has been debunked and killed over and over and over. Yet I'm hearing Mitch McConnell barfing back the same old lies to Candy Crowley a few minutes ago, and the WSJ's Stephen Moore talking over Chris Hayes on Up. They don't call it "supply-side economics" any more.
It's no longer Voodoo either. It's Zombie economics and it definitely eats the "conservative" brains like Moore's and McConnell's.
How do we kill this zombie?
Tennessee Gal
(6,160 posts)As you say, it has been debunked repeatedly. And yet they still spew it.
It will take voters educating themselves and most who need educating are too entranced by the right wing noise machine.
What I don't understand is how Republicans in office can still talk as if it works when the evidence is so overwhelming that it doesn't.
Cary
(11,746 posts)Tennessee Gal
(6,160 posts)Thanks for the link.
Cary
(11,746 posts)They fabricators of "supply-side economics" weren't even economists.
Tennessee Gal
(6,160 posts)In my Macro text there was a blurb about the Reagan era and the theories on economy at the time (related to supply side). I think the sentence was "Those theories have long since been disproven." LOL.
Cary
(11,746 posts)We went into the ideas in depth. Their major claim is that they can manipulate the supply curve but their math never worked and there is absolutely no empirical evidence to support their claim. The fact is that there is no known way to affect the supply curve in any meaningful way.
When I have confronted "conservatives" with this fact they invariably bloviate about their own business experience and how they and they alone create supply.
pansypoo53219
(20,995 posts)georgee W didn't have them + his debt exploded.