Mind Over Matalin
November 13, 2006 at 3:18 pm
From today’s Washington Post:
Republicans must resolve their own questions: Can they reconstitute conservatism to make it attractive once again beyond the party’s base? GOP strategist Mary Matalin said the Reaganite model of low taxes, smaller government and strong defense can again serve the party well, if it is updated. “It needs to put some Britney Spears clothes on it,” she said.
And here’s what Britney Spears’ clothes look like, or don’t look like:
Matt Marylin said,
November 14, 2006 @ 9:24 am
Photoshopped! Here’s what Britney really looks like these days:
http://www.gagreport.com/images/Britney_Spears_Pregnant.jpg
J2 said,
May 8, 2007 @ 2:51 pm
Reaganism promised lower taxes and smaller government but delivered lower taxes and flat to growing government. This combination allowed voters to feel money in their wallet but not pain in their reduction of services. It is NOT a sustainable model for the Republican Party nor is Reagan’s position truly conservative, in that it hid the true cost of government and led to market distortions in demand for government aid.
There are thousands of sites that document this. One for example that caught my eye
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~cupton/Lectures%20in%20Macroeconomics/powerpointslides/MBA%20PDF/Government%20Spending.pdf
The fundamental premise of Reaganomics, that by subsidizing the cost of government (through borrowing) citizens would somehow want LESS government, defies human logic and experience and in fact deficit spending increased demand for services (why not, when the pain was delayed?). Reagan himself belatedly recognized that Congress was not following suit in reducing expenses to align with income, and made some efforts to raise taxes.
The charts make it clear, even if this contradicts the iconic Reagan storyline, that the % of GDP devoted to government expenses flattened or declined under a Democratic President and Republican Congress. Objectively, this seems to have been our best moment for contraining government and balancing the budget. Sigh.