How gratifying to learn that at least one prominent conservative (Ross Douthat) has been forced by actual historical facts to admit that Saint Reagan's two "big ideas" in economics—the Laffer Curve and "starving the beast"—are, um, inoperative.
His column in today's NY Times notes (emphasis added):
Conservatives have justified this failure [to cut spending to match their tax cuts] with two incompatible theories. One is the “starve the beast” conceit, which holds that cutting taxes will force government spending downward. The other is the happy idea that tax cuts actually increase government revenue, making deficit anxieties irrelevant.
The real world hasn’t been kind to either notion. Cutting taxes without cutting spending, the Cato Institute’s William Niskanen has shown, may make voters more likely to support big government, because spending feels like a free lunch. And while some tax cuts can raise government revenue, the income-tax cuts of the Bush years emphatically did not.
The conclusion is inescapable:
The way to reduce the size of government isn't to "cut the government's allowance" by reducing taxes. That just leads to bigger deficits. Government's growth will end only when citizens are required to actually pay for all the government they use. And that means (cue sound of rending garments) tax increases.
If, as Republicans believe, the way to control health care costs is to make people pay their own medical bills, why isn't the same principle applicable to controlling the cost of government in general? We could end the Afghan war tomorrow simply by passing a law that required it be paid for with tax increases instead of borrowing. If it's worth sending our youth to die for, isn't it worth writing a check for? Our politicians are notably silent on this question.
But at least it's good to see some reality-based talk from a conservative (of course, elsewhere in the column Douthat spouts whoppers like "The Tea Party is a grass-roots movement" but even a little bit of truth is better than what most Republicans are spouting these days.)