The Beast Is Starved: Welcome to the Next Great Depression

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/08/04-2

Since Reagan, Republicans have been on a “starve the beast” campaign – by which they mean eviscerate the government by taking away as much revenue as they can.

Starving the beast has been the biggest bait and switch con game that has ever been perpetrated on the American people. And the most tragic. <"Well, if past is prologue, welcome to the next Great Depression.[br />


As Paul Krugman pointed out, Republicans offered popular tax cuts so that they could later cut popular government programs “as a necessity.” Oh, we’d love to continue providing low cost, effective medical care under Medicare, but you see, the country just can’t afford it … Of course we can’t. Billionaire hedge fund managers and Wall Street traders pay less in taxes than their secretaries. And most corporations pay little or no taxes.

Starve the Beast was coupled with a clever campaign to make government appear to be a collection of bumbling bureaucrats who wasted tax money for pure pleasure. Long after it became politically impossible to stereotype racial and ethnic groups (with the possible exceptions of Muslims) it was – and is – quite acceptable to characterize government workers as shiftless, lazy and incompetent.

More at the link --

[msongs]

1. Congresspersons and the president are sacrificing NOThing nt

[xchrom]

+1

[OhioChick]

3. Sure they are......us n/t

[DirkGently]

2. Yep. But the Beast will continue to funnel tax dollars to,say, the Defense Industry

I wonder if this contradiction will ever register in the American consciousness, which is full to the brim with knee-jerk notions of the evils of Big Government and "tax-and-spend liberals" (a phrase even Obama enjoys):

The wealthy now depend on tax revenue to actually shift wealth UPWARD. The bank bailouts and miscellaneous barely-mentioned backdoor loans and giveaways. Monstrous, incredible defense spending. Privatized profit and socialized risk.

The middle class no longer just works for the Owner class.

We pay them taxes.

[Kurmudgeon]

4. Clean The House, it's the only way to fix things.