The current socio-economic-moral dilemma now facing us collectively took form in the 1970’s. And Dick Cheney was in the room when it began coalescing into a plan with its own bullshit economic theory, policies and strategies.
After the New Deal, Republicans had a problem. The Democrat’s policy of using taxes for the Common Good and social programs was very popular. Running on spending less of that tax money on Common Good was very unpopular.
The Republican solution in 1970’s? Jude Wanniski’s “Two Santa Theory” & what’s known as the Laffer Curve:
Democrats spending tax dollars on programs to help the majority of people made them “Santa Claus”.
The Republicans cooked up their “Two Santa Claus Theory” where they didn’t initially cut spending but would cut taxes for the wealthiest when they had government control. Which temporarily made economy look good on paper.
But because the Republican tax cuts for the wealthy also runs up debt they’d then complain about that debt when Democrats took control.Then they’d force government to slash spending on popular social programs. Austerity budgets.
Always continuing to siphon money upwards to the very wealthiest.
In the same 1970’s time frame, Arthur Laffer came up with a retread economic theory known now as the ‘Laffer Curve’, a bullshit economic theory that boils down to the lie that lowering taxes (on wealthy) will magically increase tax revenue. Connect dots to the ‘Trickle Down’ theory.
Present at the 1974 meeting where Laffer introduced his economic legerdemain to the Republican leadership? Dick Cheney & Donald Rumsfeld:
The Laffer curve was popularized in the United States with policymakers following an afternoon meeting with Ford Administration officials Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeldin 1974, in which Arthur Laffer reportedly sketched the curve on a napkin to illustrate his argument.[6] The term "Laffer curve" was coined by Jude Wanniski, who was also present at the meeting.
Laffer's name began to be associated with the idea after an article was published in National Affairs in 1978 that linked him to the idea.[9] In the National Affairs article, Jude Wanniski recalled a 1974 dinner meeting at the Two Continents Restaurant in the Washington Hotel with Arthur Laffer, Wanniski, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and his deputy press secretary Grace-Marie Arnett.[9][7] In this meeting, Laffer, arguing against President Gerald Ford's tax increase, reportedly sketched the curve on a napkin to illustrate the concept.[6] Cheney did not accept the idea immediately, but it caught the imaginations of those present.[11] Laffer professes no recollection of this napkin, but writes: "I used the so-called Laffer Curve all the time in my classes and with anyone else who would listen to me".[7]
After Ford, the assault on the New Deal took hold and reached its stride in the Reagan years.
And Reagan managed to perfect Dog Whistle politics, using racist coded words to manipulate white voters to support siphoning money/wealth upwards while cutting social programs and decreasing our Quality of Life.
The Laffer curve and supply-side economics inspired Reaganomics and the Kemp-Roth Tax Cut of 1981. Supply-side advocates of tax cuts claimed that lower tax rates would generate more tax revenue because the United States government's marginal income tax rates prior to the legislation were on the right-hand side of the curve. This assertion was derided by George H. W. Bush as "voodoo economics" while running against Reagan for the Presidential nomination in 1980.[49] During the Reagan presidency, the top marginal rate of tax in the United States fell from 70% to 28%.
Just clipping out terms people can easily look up:
- Jude Wanniski
- Laffer Curve
- Two Santa Theory
- Trickle Down Economics
- Supply Side Economics
- Reaganomics
- Dog Whistle Politics
The Two Santa Claus Theory
The Two Santa Claus Theory is a political theory and strategy published by Wanniski in 1976, which he promoted within the United States Republican Party.[15][16] The theory states that in democratic elections, if members of the rival Democratic Party appeal to voters by proposing programs to help people, then the Republicans cannot gain broader appeal by proposing less spending. The first "Santa Claus" of the theory title refers to the Democrats who promise programs to help the disadvantaged. The "Two Santa Claus Theory" recommends that the Republicans must assume the role of a second Santa Claus by not arguing to cut spending but offering the option of cutting taxes.[15]
According to Wanniski, the theory is simple. In 1976, he wrote that the Two-Santa Claus Theory suggests that "the Republicans should concentrate on tax-rate reduction. As they succeed in expanding incentives to produce, they will move the economy back to full employment and thereby reduce social pressures for public spending. Just as an increase in Government spending inevitably means taxes must be raised, a cut in tax rates—by expanding the private sector—will diminish the relative size of the public sector."[16] Wanniski suggested this position, as left-liberal observer Thom Hartmann has clarified, so that the Democrats would "have to be anti-Santas by raising taxes, or anti-Santas by cutting spending. Either one would lose them elections."[17]
