Fast-rising national debt puts upward pressure on my taxes, interest rates, costs of imports, etc. I know that. So I was fascinated to hear David Stockman say,
“This debt explosion has resulted not from big spending by the Democrats, but instead the Republican Party’s embrace, about three decades ago, of the insidious doctrine that deficits don’t matter if they result from tax cuts.” [listen to the interview]

Remember Stockman? He was Reagan’s first Budget Director, back when they first embraced “supply-side economics.” That’s the theory that cutting taxes on the rich gives the employer class an incentive to create jobs, which boosts the economy. The result was supposed to be higher taxable incomes for everyone, providing enough new tax revenue to make up for the original tax cut to the rich.

Today Stockman points to the moment in the mid-80’s when

“the new tax-cutters not only claimed victory for their supply-side strategy but hooked Republicans for good on the delusion that the economy will outgrow the deficit if plied with enough tax cuts.”

The man who helped peddle the myth of Tax-Cuts-for-the-Rich recants. Will today’s hucksters do the same?