Those pesky deficits

The Republicans want you to believe that the growth in federal deficits is due to Social Security and Medicare. Certainly, they are lying about Social Security, which contributes precisely zero to the federal deficit.

In fact, federal spending as a percent of GDP, corrected for inflation, has been essentially flat since 1980, when St. Ronnie began the tradition of Republican deficit-busting tax cuts for the wealthy.

"In 2019—the last year before the pandemic—the federal government spent almost exactly as much as it did in 1980. Spending was up a bit during the 1991 and 2000 recessions, and up a lot during the 2008 recession, but it always settled down to around 20% or so.

"So yes, if spending is the same as it was 40 years ago then consistent deficits are obviously due to tax cuts."

And whose tax cuts, exactly?

"Everybody has gotten tax cuts, but the big winners were the super-rich. Not only have their incomes quadrupled since Reagan was president,² but their tax rates have gone down enough to save them some serious money on top of that. It's a sweet deal."

https://jabberwocking.com/yes-of-course-big-deficits-are-due-to-tax-cuts/

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