Are you beginning to see now why it's important--politically important--to know whether that's true or not?
Let's look at what's happening in the current debates and proposals regarding progressive programs like Medicare-for-all, to see why a rejection of the Thatcherite paradigm is not just a matter of esoteric economic theory, but a practical-political necessity for the left; and to see how almost everybody who is arguing for those programs is actually reinforcing that paradigm in a way that threatens to undermine their important progressive goals. The left has to stop speaking Maggie's language.
Let's start with the Democratic Party. It's not the left, I know, but it is the legislative horde that left activists must corral and entame to get programs like Medicare-for-all. And, pressured by its angry constituents and the bevy of self-identified "socialists" who have recently joined it, the party has even, however squeamishly, agreed to accommodate the "Medicare-for-all" demand.
As can be expected, the Democratic Party, under Nancy Pelosi's leadership, has bought into the federal deficit and debt hysteria. It has fully committed itself to a PAYGO policy, whereby, to avoid the horror of grandchildren-destroying debt, any new spending must be "budget neutral"--offset by reductions in other spending programs or tax increases. 'Cause, hey, the state has no source of money of its own.
A lot of left-of-Pelosi progressives see and reject the trap this represents. They understand this as part of a cat-and-mouse game the Republicans and Democrats have been playing for decades:
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