That Voo Doo That You Do So Well.

    When George Herbert Walker Bush campaigned against Ronald Reagan in 1980, he described Reagan's economic proposals as "Voo Doo Economics".  He was right but he could never really explain why because, as became obvious later, he had no real grasp of what was going on around him.
    It has always disappointed me to have to differentiate between presidents Bush. The idea someone was dumb enough to create a second one just kills me.
    Later, much later, Cheney famously said,  Reagan proved deficits don't matter.  He didn't mean incurring debt didn't matter in the long run.  He meant deficits didn't matter politically because the average person just didn't understand.  Lucky for him, he was right.  It was unfortunate for us.
    If you factor out Social Security and Medicare outlays, debt service on national borrowing is the second largest budget item behind Defense. In a very few years, it will e our primary expense. Social Security and Medicare can be ignored because they collect as much as we spend as a general rule.  It can't be said often enough:  It's our money whether you're 80 or 18.
    In that vein; here's another lie they love to tell.  There has been no "raid" on Social Security.  Over the years the government has borrowed from itself at no interest from the Social Security Trust Fund. The "no interest" part of that formulation is very important as, hopefully, I can explain.
    Social Security has been described as a Ponzi Scheme.  Maybe so.  But there's no denying it's been an economic boon and benefit to us all, 18 to 80.
    Deficits do matter and they matter much more than anyone has seemed to notice or admit.  The truth is,  unbridled spending unsupported by taxation has contributed to a skyrocketing of expense and taxation since the middle 1970's.  That's when the lie,  lower taxes would lead to greater revenue started to be told. You can call it  Voo Doo or trickle down or some sort of Laffer Curve.  Common sense first and then cold hard experience makes any iteration of the idea nothing but an outright lie. G W's tax cuts did not create anything but exploding debt.  2.5 trillion put on a credit card over 10 years.  Imagine what it is now when you consider the effects of compound interest.
    This is the part everyone seems to miss.  All these tax cuts since 1981, have been aimed at the famous 1%.  They pay such a great preponderance of all income taxes they actually pay about 24% of all Federal Revenue.  Frankly, if they don't have additional access to government you'd have to wonder why not.  They pay the damned bills.  So, why don't they see that every one of these debt growing proposals that reduce their tax bill this year grows their tax bill next year?  Why can't they see how much lower everyone's taxes would be if we weren't paying three hundred billion a year in debt service on the money that's been borrowed?  Not only that, at the present rate, it's projected to be six hundred billion by 2020.  Now there is a proposal to make that even worse.  I'm at a loss to imagine why the 1 percent isn't just enraged by these deficit growing proposals.  I thought rich people were supposed to be smart.
    Let's be honest here.  Elected officials are never going to cut Social Security or Medicare.  You can bribe them, err, I mean contribute to them all you want but they not just want to be re-elected they have to be re-elected to do anything for you.  So, that's out.  There are 324 million Americans, all wanting and needing goods and services only the government can provide.  The services we provide to the less fortunate don't really amount to a hill of beans compared to what we've just outright handed the rich in the form of bailouts and we're just not gonna stop doing it.  We're too nice for that.
    So, what's that leave us?  The only thing left is to make an effort to reduce what we pay in debt service.  That means we pay our damned bills as they come due.  That means responsible taxation.
    I have to say it again.  I thought rich people were supposed to be smart.
    Let's have a show of hands.  How many families have sat around the kitchen table and realized they wouldn't have the financial problems they faced if they didn't have consumer ( read credit card) debt? Now think about the fact the government borrows money at terms resembling the predatory practices of the worst credit cards.
    Geez, pay the damned bills and just laugh at the politicians who suggest otherwise.