Those who blame tax cuts for budget deficits might want to avoid the following passage from Buck Wild (Nelson Current, 2006), an anti-big government tract from Cato Institute’s Stephen Slivinski:
Opponents are quick to point out that Reagan left office with a budget deficit that was twice as large in absolute dollar terms as it was when he took office. But saying the tax cuts caused the deficit is exactly backward. What really drove the deficit to new heights was too much government spending. Consider this: If the federal government had grown by only the rate of inflation in each year of Reagan’s presidency, the federal budget would have been balanced in seven years, and he would have left behind a $63 billion surplus.
If you think Slivinski is a GOP apologist, think again. The book’s subtitle is “How Republicans Broke the Bank and Became the Party of Big Government.”
