Fighting Inflation With Fake Spending Cuts and Budget Cuts

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ILLUSTRATION: FOTOLIA/JOHN TAKAI
The Reagan administration's vaunted tax cuts were more hype than reality, according to one analyst.

This article is reprinted by permission from Inquiry Magazine.


P.T. Barnum Was Right

The senators on the Budget Committee were feeling testy–or exultant, depending on their party preference–after three days of grappling with President Reagan’s budget. Said a depressed Daniel Moynihan: “We have undone 30 years of social legislation in three days.”

The Republicans, too, were impressed with the magnitude of the endeavor. “Extraordinary times demand extraordinary efforts,” said Pete Domenici of New Mexico. Added Robert Kasten of Wisconsin: “We simply must break from the policies of the past.” All around the country the newspapers said the same thing. Whether you were for it or against it, the editorial pages agreed, the Reagan budget was revolutionary, the most sweeping change in American policy since the New Deal.

  • Published on Sep 1, 1981
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