A Beast of an Idea

Can big deficits starve the governm ent down to size? Not in this universe

How can you justify cutting taxes when you're already running a huge deficit and you're adding new spending like an extra $400 billion on Medicare? For a quarter-century, tax-cut junkies have had two answers to that. One is supply-side economics: There is no need to cut spending. Tax cuts can be so liberating they will actually pay for themselves, and then some, by inspiring new economic activity.

The second answer is that if you want smaller government, you have to "starve the beast." Larger deficits increase the pressure for spending cuts. President Bush has actually said that deficits are a...

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