David Stockman takes President Obama and Rep. Paul Ryan to the woodshed
If you remember anything at all about David Stockman, it鈥檚 probably his being 鈥渢aken to the woodshed鈥� when he was Ronald Reagan鈥檚 budget director.
That was back in late 1981 when he gave a long interview to William Greider for the Atlantic magazine. In a piece titled 鈥淭he Education of David Stockman,鈥� the young former congressman from Michigan acknowledged that Reagan鈥檚 tax cut was 鈥渁 Trojan horse鈥� to bring down the top tax rate.
鈥淭he supply-side formula was the only way to get a tax policy that was really 'trickle down鈥�,鈥� he told Greider. "None of us really understands what's going on with all these numbers.鈥�
The White House was not happy 鈥� senior aides trotted him off to the press room to recant, sort of.
But he lasted through Reagan鈥檚 first term, then went off to become a successful businessman. He also wrote 鈥淭he Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed鈥� 鈥� mainly a slam at Republicans in Congress for their failure to push for deep budget cuts. The result of tax cuts without accompanying cuts in government spending were rising deficits.
Sound familiar?
Stockman is back with essentially the same message, and in a 鈥減ox on both your houses鈥� column in the New York Times Sunday he says both President Obama and House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R) have it wrong.
鈥淚n attacking the Bush tax cuts for the top 2 percent of taxpayers, the president is only incidentally addressing the deficit,鈥� 鈥淢r. Obama is thus playing the class-war card more aggressively than any Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt 鈥� surpassing Harry S. Truman or John F. Kennedy when they attacked big business or Lyndon B. Johnson or Jimmy Carter when they posed as champions of the little guy.鈥�
鈥淥n the other side,鈥� he continues, 鈥淩epresentative Ryan fails to recognize that we are not in an era of old-time enterprise capitalism in which the gospel of low tax rates and incentives to create wealth might have had relevance.鈥�
鈥淪o the Ryan plan worsens our trillion-dollar structural deficit and the Obama plan amounts to small potatoes, at best,鈥� he concludes. 鈥淲orse, we are about to descend into class war because the Obama plan picks on the rich when it should be pushing tax increases for all, while the Ryan plan attacks the poor when it should be addressing middle-class entitlements and defense.鈥�
While he whacks both Obama and Ryan, Stockman seems to be especially disappointed with his fellow Republicans, and it鈥檚 not the first time he鈥檚 done so in this widely-read venue.
In a column taking on GOP lawmakers last July, he took particular aim at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for pushing to extend the Bush tax cuts.
鈥淢r. McConnell鈥檚 stand puts the lie to the Republican pretense that its new monetarist and supply-side doctrines are rooted in its traditional financial philosophy,鈥� 鈥淩epublicans used to believe that prosperity depended upon the regular balancing of accounts 鈥� in government, in international trade, on the ledgers of central banks and in the financial affairs of private households and businesses, too. But the new catechism, as practiced by Republican policymakers for decades now, has amounted to little more than money printing and deficit finance 鈥� vulgar Keynesianism robed in the ideological vestments of the prosperous classes.鈥�
Ouch.
It seems David Stockman now is the one taking others to the woodshed.
