Starve the beast
From Libertarian Wiki
Starve the beast is a proposal strategy to reduce the size of government by limiting tax revenues. It seems to be popular among Republicans.
The theory has been criticized on the grounds that it is not consistant with the actual behavior of the government, that it is internally inconsistant, politically cowardly, and politically incomplete.
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[edit] Empirical criticism
Federal spending continues to increase , in spite of recent tax cuts and rapidly increasing Federal debt.[1]
[edit] Internal inconsistancy
Traditional "starve the beast" proposal identifies politicians as the problem, yet it relies on politicians to be the solution. It proposes that after politicians cut taxes, they will be faced with rising deficits and will respond by cutting spending, rather than raising taxes or allowing deficits to continue. This criticism is summed up with the bumper-sticker slogan "The beast won't starve itself", and suggests that "starving the beast" requires direct action from the citizens in the form of tax protests (refusal to pay taxes, or refusal to engage in activities that generate tax revenue). Additionally, an large debt requires large intrest payments, so the debt produced by this strategy could eventually prevent further decreases in tax rates.
[edit] Political cowardice
Politically, it is always easy for a politician to give something to his constituents. It is easy to cut taxes, but difficult to cut government benefits. A focus on tax cuts avoids the difficult issues, and therefore does not change anything in a substantial way. Additionally, massive federal debt causes its own problems, so a strategy that depends on massive increases to the debt are irresponsible.
Continuing with this line of thought, it is possible that by disconnecting taxes from spending, the "Starve the beast" advocates have effectively provided a discount on government services, making government spending appear to be more cost-effective (and more desirable) than it actually is. This is known as the Stoke the beast hypothesis.
[edit] Politically incomplete
The government exerts power in may ways other than taxes and spending. This proposal ignores those forms of government power, and may even invite politicians to rely on those forms of power as their financial power decreases. These more direct exertions of government power may be more brutal and more inefficient than taxes.
