By Zachary Griffiths, Modern War Institute: “Successful bureaucracies aren’t where expertise dies, however, but where it lives in the government.”
Brian Riedl, Washington Examiner
Washington’s recent deficit-blowout should finally kill the “starve the beast” hypothesis. This idea – which initially caught fire with conservatives in the 1980s – is that the most effective way to shrink government is to first cut taxes and “starve” the government of funding. At that point, the hypothesis goes, deficit-focused politicians will have no choice but to reduce spending accordingly.So how does “starve the beast” explain that – just 49 days after signing into law the largest tax cut in 16 years – President Trump signed the largest spending expansion in 8 years? Read more here....
The worst recovery in decades has changed the way local governments tax and spend.