In addition, I think that their magical thinking is dangerous to the financial health of our country. Accepting that cuts in income tax rates have benefits and costs allows there to be a needed rational debate about whether those benefits are worth the costs and whether those costs are affordable. Believing those costs to be a "free lunch", however, makes that debate appear to be unnecessary.That's been my worry as well, and I wonder if we aren't seeing that scenario played out right now. Politicians are no more likely to want to read economic studies and memoirs than anyone else, and they are just as likely to subscribe to the Everybody Knows school of financial history. When that history has been distorted by over-enthusiastic and less than scrupulous cheerleaders you have the recipe for big trouble.
That's been my worry as well, and I wonder if we aren't seeing that scenario played out right now. Politicians are no more likely to want to read economic studies and memoirs than anyone else, and they are just as likely to subscribe to the Everybody Knows school of financial history. When that history has been distorted by over-enthusiastic and less than scrupulous cheerleaders you have the recipe for big trouble. True. We can hardly expect those who know little about economic realities to oppose cuts in their taxes and increases in benefits that they receive from the government. It is the responsibility of those who should know better, especially those who we PAY to know better, to do their jobs. Otherwise we are, as you said, in big trouble.