Thom Hartmann frequently discusses the Two Santa Claus strategy devised in 1976 by Republican strategist Jude Wanniski. Read his National Observer op-ed from March 6, 1976 here. Basically, the theory goes: "The Democrats, the party of income redistribution, are best suited for the role of Spending Santa Claus. The Republicans, traditionally the party of income growth, should be the Santa Claus of Tax Reduction." Also, Republicans "embrace the role of Scrooge, playing into the hands of the Democrats, who know the first rule of successful politics is Never Shoot Santa Claus. The political tension in the market place of ideas must be between tax reduction and spending increases, and as long as Republicans have insisted on balanced budgets, their influence as a party has shriveled, and budgets have been imbalanced." And: "As (Republicans) succeed in expanding incentives to produce, they will move the economy back to full employment and thereby reduce social pressures for public spending."
During the election of 2008, the Democrats controlled both bodies of Congress, and the president was a Republican. Thus, the Republicans would have MORE power of screaming and hollering "DEBT! DEFICIT!" if a Democrat made it to the White House. Conservatives...like Cheney in this case...have acknowledged that Republicans might have intentionally wanted to lose the 2008 election in order to gain more power by screaming at Democrats. In 2010, Michael Savage wrote this revealing passage in the intro to his book Trickle Up Poverty: Stopping Obama's Attack on Our Borders, Economy, and Security:
The Republican establishment knew they had to give the power to a Democrat in order to take the spotlight off their own failure and excess—no matter how dangerous Obama might be once in power. They knew they had wrecked things so badly by running up the largest deficits in history and expanding the size of government—all under George Bush. They reason, “Let’s give it to a Democrat so the country can blame him for the worst four years in American history, and then we’ll come back triumphant with another Republicrat who will continue to hoodwink the sheeple.”
With the Bush tax cuts still in effect and debt ceiling debacle last summer we're seeing this "make the Democrats shoot Santa Claus" strategy in action. Do you know why House Speaker John Boehner bragged after the debt negotiations, "
I got 98% of what I wanted"? As CBS
reported, "...no stimulus in the debt-ceiling/deficit plan. Nada. No extension of unemployment benefits through 2012. No payroll tax holiday extension through 2012. Nor a move to extend the program to include employers in the tax holiday."
Republicans in Congress did the same thing back in the Clinton administration. In 1993, Newt Gingrich (then the House Minority Leader) went on the House floor and predicted that Clinton's economic plan (like raising the top tax rate slightly) would
crash the economy (obviously not true). The following year, control of both bodies of Congress flipped from Democrats to Republicans, and one of the landmark achievements of the Clinton administration was "ending welfare as we know it".
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