Deficits Were On Purpose To Cause This “Crisis”

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/31-10



Before ‘W’ got in and made changes in taxes and military spending we were paying off the debt. Bush said the deficits that resulted from his changes were “extremely positive news.” (Yes, that is in quotes, click the link.) Before that Reagan also caused deficits on purpose. He called it “starve the beast” — as if democracy is a “beast” that needs to be killed. So don’t fall for all this deficit hysteria, let’s just fix what caused the deficits and move on.

This Deficit Story Can’t Be Repeated Often Enough

From May, This Deficit Story Can’t Be Repeated Often Enough,

Any time any DC elite complains about “the deficit” remind them that when Clinton left office we had a huge surplus, so big that at the rate it was being paid down the entire US debt was going to be paid off in 10 years. Bush demanded that we give back the people’s money and Greenspan warned of the danger of paying off the debt. Etc. Etc. Etc. Then Bush doubled military spending — and started two wars on top of that!

So we went from big surplus to huge, huge deficits. Bush said it was “incredibly positive news” when we went back into deficit spending. He said it was good news because it continued the plan to use debt to force the government to cut back. He said that. It was the plan. (Don’t take my word for it, click the links.)

[HiPointDem]

1. fuckspan played a role too: i can't remember the details exactly, but basically, when clinton

was running surpluses he said taxes needed to be cut because the surpluses were dangerous. something along those lines, anyway.

then when deficits appeared he had a different story.

there are sometimes when i think almost everything in american life is psyops.

[pangaia]

7. Almost everything in american life IS psyops.

You have it exactly right.

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. 12/12/2000 The Beginning of the End.

[MH1]

3. ^^^^ THIS.

Allowing republicans to gain control of state legislatures and thus the redistricting process in 2010 hastened the fall, however.

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. +1. nt

[WinkyDink]

5. It was, in no uncertain terms, a coup d'etat.

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. It was. And so many didn't care that is was. That is the disturbing part.

[freedom fighter jh]

9. Some didn't care.

Some time between the election and the SC decision, I remember one Democratic-voting friend telling me it was time for Gore and Lieberman to give it up. I don't know why she said that.

But there were also murmurings of fear of what would happen if the people didn't accept the SC decision. I heard a lot of "The Supreme Court has spoken and we have to accept that decision even if we don't agree with it." After the final decision, The New York Times ran an article about the final vote count with a misleading headline. Deep in the article, where almost no one read, they stated the truth: that if the vote count had been allowed to continue, Gore would have won the Electoral College vote.

Refusal to accept a decision that was clearly undemocratic and unfair might threaten our whole system.

Unfortunately it seems that acceptance of that decision has done just that.

[SammyWinstonJack]

10. Yeah, 'Give it up' and 'Get over it' were cries from those who didn't care, meant only too

suppress the concerns of us who knew that decision would threaten our whole system.

It worked then and it continues to work, still.

[freedom fighter jh]

11. Yeah. nt

[GeorgeGist]

8. You give too much credit ...

to weasels who claim their screw ups are all part of a plan.

I had them as students.

[Maineman]

17. I strongly suspect there were devious brains guiding those screw ups.

There is too much ongoing planning, too many think tanks, too many devious schemers buying and directing dumb greedy Republican politicians. For example, they were smart enough to go for control of many state houses in a census year (2010) so they could gerrrymander lots of House districts.

[great white snark]

12. Commondreams unloaded so much shit that they had every possible end scenario covered.

No wonder why BBI loved 'em so much.

[Squinch]

13. Um. No. It was not a master plan. It was exactly the crushing stupidity it appeared to be.

[socialist_n_TN]

18. Wrong. It WAS a master plan, BUT.......

what was wrong was that it only started with Bush. This master plan has been in the works since Reagan. I've heard this "starve the beast" rhetoric from the RW since the 80s.

It's just that now the plan is coming to fruition.

[toddwv]

23. Maybe you're not old enough to have been around during the conception of the plan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

Grover Norquvist:
"My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

[Squinch]

24. If it were a plan it would mean that the Iraq war was to run up the debt. I think the whole purpose

of it was to line the Bush and Cheney family and friends' pockets. I don't think the purpose was to run up the debt. I also don't think the purpose of the Bush tax cuts or the unfunded drug bill was to run up the debt. I think they absolutely did not understand the arithmetic.

[Squinch]

25. (But because you suggested I was not old enough at the outset, now I'll follow you anywhere!)

[jerseyjack]

14. Google "Two Santa Claus Theory"

It's all in there.

Played out to perfection by the Repukes.



Add a little "Shock Doctrine" for seasoning.

[Snarkoleptic]

22. Now that the debt has run up, they want Dems to shoot Santa Claus.

Skip to 1:40 if you want to cut to the chase...

[DhhD]

15. The thought of another Bush in any lawmaking office scares me. We have the next generation

running for public office starting here in Texas in the Railroad Commission election.

[deutsey]

16. David Stockman said that's what Reaganomics was all about

Called it a "Trojan horse" to benefit the rich.

[LibertyBell7]

19. Agreed. The Corporazis have been playing a long game (decades long)...

...and only a few have recently awoken to the fact.

When Reagan said, "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem," many folks responded, "Hell yeah!" — and failed to think about what he was actually telling us. He had just committed the unpardonable political sin of speaking honestly, but wrapped in a nice, shiny rhetorical populist bow to defeat critical thought. That was his primary talent.

Oh, yeah: That was his first inaugural address in 1981.

So, what was the honesty-leakage? We are the government, right? In short, he was telling us democracy is the problem. We can't solve our own problems. United we stand does not work, in his world view.

And his means to ''solve" this problem? Rob from the 98-99% and give to the elite plutocrats. Trickle-Down Theory. Voodoo Economics. Poppy Bush could have said, "Read his lips" — but he had already been sucked to the dark side.

32 years ago.

Of course, the planning for this long "game" (war against democracy) started even further back, with telltales showing up under Nixon, and a few even further back than that with the philosophies espoused by the Family (read Jeff Sharlet sometime for a good scare; http://www.jeffsharlet.com/). That could stretch this back to the late 40s, after WWII.

In terms of the Matrix mythos: It's time to choose the red or blue pill.

[pnwmom]

20. That's true, but it goes back to Reagan.

He was the first to drive up deficits deliberately in order to have the excuse to cut social programs, when he failed in cutting the social programs that he wanted to cut.

[JReed]

21. K&R

http://michael-hudson.com/2012/12/americas-deceptive-2012-fiscal-cliff/

[marybourg]

26. Dems wanted to use the surplus to shore up Medicare and S.S., but

The People's Choice insisted that giving "the people their own money back" would stimulate the economy so much that Medicare and S.S. would grow naturally as a consequence of all the new jobs and higher wages. Sure, it did. What amazes me is that ANYONE could vote for a publican after that.

[indepat]

27. Starve the beast so it will be easy to kill "entitlements" has been the 'puke

mantra since the gipper foisted his voodoo economics upon America: his deification nears. All hail the mighty gipper, glory be his name.

[leftstreet]

28. DURec

[whatchamacallit]

29. Unfortunately, stating the obvious will brand you as a Heretical Lunatic on DU n/t