The Definition of "Free Stuff": Promising Government Without Having To Pay For It.
My answer to the Republican canard that Democrats win elections by 'promising poor people FREE STUFF.'
Pandering to middle class and wealthy voters with the promise of TAX CUTS without reductions in the government services THEY use (but refuse to acknowledge as services--Social Security, Medicare, Mortgage deductions, public education, cheap food through farm subsidies, police, fire, armed forces, roads, sewage disposal etc.) is the DEFINITION of pandering to people with promises of free stuff.
Cold, hard FACT: we didn't get into this mess by liberal politicians promising poor people free stuff. We got into this mess by conservative politicians promising a much larger group that they could have their tax cuts AND their government TOO, and make up the difference by only cutting services to people YOU don't like anyway. (Standard Scapegoats: welfare queens, people on food stamps, 'illegals aliens' and various other racist Dog Whistle groups.)
Here's a nice little tidbit to throw back at your crazy friend when they blather about 'government having a SPENDING problem, not a revenue problem': Government spending as a fraction of GDP has increased by about 15% since the end of WWII, and prior to the 1981 Reagan tax cuts, the National Debt was LESS THAN $1 trillion. It's now $16 trillion. How can you account for a 1600% increase in the National Debt with only a 15% increase in Government Spending? Reckless taxcuts, paid for by borrowing, that's how. The National Debt has increased 16 fold, the wealth of the top 1% has TRIPLED, and the wealth of the middle class has actually DECLINED in normalized dollars. Tax Cuts DO NOT cause WEALTH to trickle down, JUST DEBT.
You can even show them THIS figure. See that line where the National Debt switches from DROPPING to SHOOTING BACK UP LIKE A ROCKET? Yep...that's when the 1981 Reagan tax cuts began.
