President Jimmy Carter's 1977 defense budget gave America a smaller than promised and temporary peace dividend. Then in 1981 Ronald Reagan, a Republican, became president and he went on a military-industrial-complex spending binge, and he gave the rich massive tax-cuts in 1981 and then again in 1986. The top marginal tax rate was reduced from 70% on the rich to 30%. Reagan was willingly entranced by shaman chanting Voodoo Economics (a.k.a. supply-side economics). Reagan's mantra became "trickledown, trickledown, trickledown."
After the 9-11-2001 attacks, George W. Bush invaded Afghanistan less than one month later on October 7, 2001 and then Bush invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003. The U.S. has been in a never ending war for 16 years, at the cost of Trillions of dollars, and millions of people destroyed, mostly people of color.
Colin Powell infamous UN speech on Iraq .weapons of mass destruction.
(Image by Abode of Chaos) Details DMCA
Neither the Afghan Taliban nor Iraq's Saddam Hussein had anything to do with the attacks of 9-11, but they had oil, natural gas, pipeline routes, and strategic locations. Bush lied the country into war to get them, and he got nothing. But the military-industrial-complex got lucrative contracts, an estimated $5 Trillion and still counting the cost, as the wars go on,and on, and on! Just like Reagan, Bush believed in Voodoo Economics and trickledown theory. So on top of record costs for criminal wars of aggression, Bush gave the rich more tax cuts.
President Barack Obama became president in 2009 on the promise of change. Instead he intensified the criminal Bush wars, drone assassinations, torture, and political prisoners. Obama embraced Voodoo Economics by bailing out the banks, austerity for the middle class and poor, and extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich in 2010. Trickledown economics is a zombie that just won't die, but it keeps killing the host.
In 2010 Obama used smoke and mirrors to give the illusion of cuts in defense spending. It was sleight of hand of delayed spending, not real cuts. Then in 2013 the sequester rules cut spending across the board by $1.2 trillion to be spread over nine years.
President Donald Trump does not believe in climate change which has been proven, but he believes in Voodoo Economics which has been a fraud. Trump wants to cut taxes again for the rich and eliminate the estate tax completely. Trump wants to exempt the military from the sequester rules, too. How much of our blood will ever satisfy this vampire?
According to an article by Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Patricia Cohen in the New York Times, the Trump tax plan would "shift Trillions from U.S. coffers to the richest". Why should the rich be concerned about wars? They are not! They get "war dividends", extravagant luxuries and their children will never have to fight and die in war.
Supply-side economic theory, neoliberalism, and trickle-down economics are all Voodoo Economics. Like Reagan's ghost it wanders the White House and the Halls of Congress... trickledown, trickledown, trickledown. The only thing that trickles down is the sewage of wars and austerity for the middle class and the poor. America's investment in human resources and human development has been stunted. Health, education, a living wage, and equality are treated like an orphan, while the rich get richer.
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