Just in case you missed it, here’s another version of the U.S. Balance Sheet with INCOME and EXPENSES expressed as the per cent of the Gross Domestic Product. The Reagan and Bush II tax cuts are marked with arrows:
With card tricks, Magicians use the term, "sleight of hand":
Sleight of hand, also known as prestidigitation (‘quick fingers’) or legerdemain (from the French for ‘lightness of hand’), is the set of techniques used by a magician (or card sharp) to manipulate objects such as cards and coins secretly. Sleight of hand is not a branch of magic, but rather the means used by a magician to achieve magical effects. The techniques involved are sometimes difficult and may need months or years of practice before they can be performed proficiently. Sleight of hand is mostly employed in close-up magic, but it can also be used in stage magic.
Another term used for Magician is "Illusionist":
il·lu·sion·ist
- a conjurer or magician who creates illusions, as by sleight of hand.
- an adherent of illusionism.
These tax cutters are Illusionists using sleight of hand. Like with a card trick, the Magician focuses the audience’s attention elsewhere with bravado, "I’m going to cut your taxes!" That implies that government expenses will go down, the dream of every red-blooded Conservative. To strengthen the illusion, the Magician cuts things, some dreaded socialist welfare programs. Unseen, the expense cuts in no way offset the tax breaks, but no one is looking, and it doesn’t really show up for a year or so anyway. So, it’s "not a branch of magic," and it "may need months or years of practice before [it] can be performed proficiently."The result is obvious in the graph. We go into debt. It’s called "deficit spending" and is a recommended technique by economists to offset a mild recession. Reagan and the Bushes have learned to use it instead as an illusion to get elected and to cover spending for special interests and the military. They leave it to the future to "pay the Piper." Besides being a cheap trick, it’s dangerous. It removes the buffer in case there is a real recession.
Simply put, it’s an irresponsible trick.
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