As the Fitch credit rating service puts the United States on “watch” for a possible downgrade and Democrats dither about the 14th Amendment, Republicans just declared the House of Representatives
in a break because, from their point of view, there really is no crisis.
In fact, from the GOP’s perspective, it’s all going according to plan.
As Teagan Goddard’s
Political Wire noted yesterday:
It’s no accident or coincidence that the threat of a failure to pay the nation’s bills
never once happened during the presidencies of Reagan, Bush, Bush, or Trump. Or that it
did happen
every single time during the presidencies of Clinton, Obama…and, now, Biden.
You could even call it a conspiracy: there’s an amazing backstory — with a unique name — here. And it all started with a guy named Jude Wanniski, who literally transformed American politics with a plan that the American mainstream media, astonishingly, continues to ignore.
Here’s how it works, laid it out in simple summary:
To set up its foundation, Wanniski’s “Two Santas” strategy dictates, when Republicans control the White House they must spend money like a drunken Santa and cut taxes on the rich, all to intentionally run up the US debt as far and as fast as possible.
They started this during the Reagan presidency and tripled down on it during the presidencies of Bush and Trump with massive tax cuts for billionaires and increases in spending across-the-board.
Those massive tax cuts and that uncontrolled spending during Republican presidencies produced three results:
- They stimulated the economy with a sort of sugar high, making people think that the GOP can produce a good economy;
- They raised the national debt dramatically (it’s at $32 trillion today, almost all of which tracks back to Reagan’s, Bush Jr.’s, and Trump’s massive tax cuts and Bush’s two illegal off-the-books wars);
- And they made people think that Republicans are the “tax-cut Santa Clauses.”
Then comes part two of the one-two punch: when a Democrat is in the White House, Republicans must scream about the national debt as loudly and frantically as possible,
freaking out about how “our children will have to pay for it!” and “we have to cut spending to solve the crisis!”
The “debt crisis,” that is, that they themselves created with their massive tax cuts and wild spending.
Do whatever it takes, the strategy goes: use the
1917 Liberty Bond debt ceiling to shut down the government, crash the stock market, and damage US credibility around the world if necessary.
This will force the Democratic president in the White House to cut his own social safety net programs and even the crown jewel of the New Deal, Social Security, thus
shooting their welfare-of-the-American-people Santa Claus right in the face.
And, sure enough, here we are again with a Democrat in the White House.
The only thing wrong with the U.S. economy is the failure of the Republican Party to play Santa Claus. —Jude Wanniski, March 6, 1976 As the Fitch credit rating service puts the United States on “watch” for a possible downgrade and Democrats dither...
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There's only a the filthy rich, and monopoly corporations not paying even close to enough taxes problem.
