Is Kevin McCarthy the Next Liz Truss?

Today on TAP: The six-week reign of the U.K.’s PM makes clear that Reaganomics is a disaster in the real world—but Republicans don’t live in the real world.

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Well, that was quick. Henceforth, the musical accompaniment that’s set to footage of Liz Truss should be the Groucho Marx ballad “Hello, I Must Be Going.”

What the blink-and-you-miss-it rise and fall of Britain’s six-week wonder demonstrates is that even by the standards of the markets, much less those of people’s lives, Reaganomics is a complete disaster. To combat the U.K.’s myriad economic woes, Truss exhumed the policies of both Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: huge tax cuts for the rich and deregulation of business, on the already disproven theory that such measures can revive an economy. The markets, not to mention people themselves, responded by pointing out that such policies swell deficits, immiserate the poor, damage the middle class, enrich the already-rich, and do nothing to fight inflation—indeed, by compelling central banks to raise interest rates, they compound it.

More from Harold Meyerson

Truss’s policies were taken whole from a range of London-based libertarian “think tanks,” which had cocooned themselves, along with such playmates as The Wall Street Journal’s editorialists, in a plutocratic hall of mirrors that admitted no light or data from the real world. Now that those policies have met as decisive a real-world rejection as can be imagined, it would be comforting to think that our own Republican Party, which appears poised to take over the House after the midterm elections, would learn from the Truss debacle.

It would be comforting, but it’s not happening. Instead, Republicans are planning to cut back on Social Security and Medicare by refusing to extend the debt ceiling, which would plunge an already beleaguered global economy into much deeper disarray. As my colleague Ryan Cooper has noted today,

All four GOP representatives running to head the House Budget Committee have promised that they are going to take the debt ceiling hostage to get big cuts. “Our main focus has got to be on nondiscretionary—it’s got to be on entitlements,” said Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA). Specifically, they mentioned increasing the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare, and adding means tests or work requirements. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who will probably be Speaker of the House if Republicans take control, endorsed the strategy. “You can’t just continue down the path to keep spending and adding to the debt,” he said.

In other words, the stake has yet to be driven through Reaganomics’ putrid heart. If ever it is to be, Democrats must make clear why this zombie doctrine needs to be destroyed, a task to which they should particularly address themselves between now and Election Day.

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