After you read this message, do yourself and your country a favor. Call your member of the U.S. House and both U.S. Senators Cruz and Cornyn with this simple message: No tax cuts and stop mass deportations or you’ll damage the economy. Find your reps here. Make sure you also read to the end of this post for a special LIV proposal under the header "Deregulate Democracy" and how you can help.
Hearing about President Donald Trump's 50% defense cuts and call to get Russia and China to join him to cut their defense budgets by 50%, prompted the anti-interventionist economist David Stockman*, President Ronald Reagan's former "whiz kid" appointed Director of the Office of Management and Budget in 1981, to write:
"you don’t need to be a student of the intricacies of the $850 billion defense budget to recognize that when you cut the Pentagon’s rations by half the whole globalist national security framework left over from the Cold War’s demise 34 years ago collapses."
A few days later (February 18), seeing the budget resolution proposed by the U.S. House GOP, Stockman wrote,
"What in the hell are these GOP fiscal frauds thinking?"
"In short, the GOP budget resolution is a complete betrayal of any even minimal notion of fiscal sanity. Upon a fresh CBO [Congressional Budget Office] report (January 2025) showing massive Federal deficits rising skyward as far as the eye can see, these cats in the GOP caucus have proposed—apparently with a straight face—to add a net of $3.3 trillion ($4.8 trillion of tax cuts less $1.5 trillion of spending reductions) of new deficits on top of the $28 trillion of baseline deficits shown below."
Stockman also claims -- and we believe him -- that contained in the House GOP budget are:
"$4.4 trillion of fake deficit cuts in the document."
Ross Perot's Crazy Aunt
In 1992, the self-made billionaire from Texarkana, Ross Perot, ran as an independent for President calling out the $4 trillion U.S. federal debt as:
“the crazy aunt in the basement that the neighbors know is there, but no one wanted to talk about."
Perot's warning came in 1992 when our debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product, our nation's income) ratio was 46%. When Stockman became OMB director in 1981, the debt was under $1 trillion and our debt-to-GDP ratio was 31%.
Today, the U.S. debt is $36T. But the more important number is our debt-to-GDP ratio. It is as much as 124% (2023) according to the reliable Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Also, every child born today is born with $108,000 in public debt on their shoulders.
But here's the biggest kicker: Interest payments on the debt have surpassed the cost of some of our nation's largest spending categories.
It's a complex story about how our country is facing a debt crisis. But, it’s not that difficult to track. We’re going to show you more soon about how.
Let’s be honest. There is a widespread lack of acceptance of the problem from all corners. Most importantly, is average American's private debt -- for every man, woman and child -- is $38,000.
Stockman‘s Bird Dogging of the DOGE
Stockman offered an early-on and supportive warning to the DOGE about tax cuts for the wealthy and mass deportations that could do serious harm to our economy, offering copious facts and figures. Did the DOGE respond? Let us pray that David got a call from Elon, if not the big man in the Whitehouse.
Folks reading this from any state! Call your member of the U.S. House and both U.S. with this simple message: No tax cuts and stop mass deportations or you’ll damage the economy.
Deregulate Democracy!
Policy, not politics, gentlemen. LIV proposes a widely used option around the world and in 26 states: A series of referenda asking the American people what cuts and revenue-generation ideas they would support.
If you would like to help put this idea into action, please contact us. You can also help LIV reach 8 million independent voters in Texas. Become a member of LIV today. Get involved. LIV meets weekly. Visit our Events Section.
Or, call, email, or use the contact form on this site.
_________________________ Note:
*When Stockman resigned from the OMB in 1985, it was a year before he wrote the book, “The Triumph of Politics.” In the book, he makes his case for his well-founded (and common sense) belief that if you do tax cuts without commensurate spending cuts, you just keep growing the federal debt. Duh! We cherish Stockman because he makes an exceedingly complex subject – economics -- understandable, not because we agree with everything he says. Stockman is also -- as was Perot – brilliant and hilarious.
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