Americans are finally waking up to the biggest Republican con of them all: the small government con.

Ever since the 1980s, Republicans have used a strategy former Reagan budget director David Stockman called "starving the beast."

The thinking behind this strategy is pretty simple.

First, you cut taxes to "starve" the "the beast" (the government) of the revenue it needs to survive.

Then, when people start getting angry because the government can no longer afford to work the way it should, you propose a solution: cut spending.

Instead of feeding the beast even more, you say, we should trim it down to size, make it lose some weight.

And so the cycle continues.

Now that the government physically can't afford to do its job because you've cut most of its revenue sources and because it doesn't provide the services it used to provide because you've slashed away at budget after budget, the people get even angrier with the government and government employees.

The lines at the DMV and the Social Security office get longer and longer, schools disintegrate, and people blame the government workers for it, not realizing it was Republicans who cut the workforce to the point where government can barely do its job.

Eventually, they become so upset that they start thinking, like Reagan, that government is the problem, not the solution.

And so what do they do?

They demand even more budget cuts and even more tax cuts until the "beast" -- otherwise known as our government -- is finally dead.

Our commons and government functions - from Social Security to Education - can then be privatized and sold off to the highest bidder, usually whatever local billionaire has bankrolled the Republican Party in his area.

Pretty insidious strategy, right?

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Have We Run Out Of Time? (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

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Community Square  

 "The People of Alaska Want to Elect the Hottest Candidate in 2016"  

    

Wednesday's Daily Stack 

 

Video: Sanders: 'Superdelegates may rethink commitment' - Andrea Mitchell Reports.

Article: "Hillary Clinton's stunningly large win in Mississippi" by Philip Bump.

Article: "What The Stunning Bernie Sanders Win In Michigan Means" by Harry Enten.

Article: "Trump backs Medicare negotiating drug prices" by Politico.

Article: "Exclusive: Lee Atwater's Infamous 1981 Interview on the Southern Strategy" by Rick Perlstein.

Article: "White Rose: The Germans who tried to topple Hitler" by Lucy Burns.

Site: "The White Rose Society - Liberal/Progressive Talk Radio Audio Archives".

Book: The New Democrats and the Return to Power by Al From.

Article: "Democratic Leadership Council" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Department of Peace" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Works Progress Administration" (WPA) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Civilian Conservation Corps" (CCC) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Senator Puts Hold on Lead Bill, Says Flint Doesn't Need Fed Aid" by Phil Helsel.

Article: "DARK Act Returns to Congress in Latest Industry Effort to Block GMO Food Labeling" by Center for Food Safety.

Article: "Campbell Soup becomes first major company to start GMO labeling" by Siddharth Cavale and Subrat Patnaik.

Article: "Pic Of The Moment: A Good Day For Dems: Trump By The Numbers" by EarlG.

Article: "Fewer Democrats Are Voting This Year In (Surprise!) States With Strict New Voter Laws. But Republicans don't appear to be hurt." by Janie Velencia, Alissa Scheller.

Article: "Bernie Sanders Wins Big With Michigan Muslims - And Political Pundits Can't Quite Believe It" by Ismat Sarah Mangla.

Book: The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed by David Stockman.

Article: "170 Economists Endorse Bernie Sanders' Plan To Reform Wall St. And Rein In Greed" by Jason Easley.

Site: Bernie 2016   

Site: Feel the Bern.

Site: Hillary for America  

Article: "Tulsi Gabbard" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The Perfect State Index: If Iowa, N.H. Are Too White To Go First, Then Who?" by Asma Khalid.

Hour Two: LIVE on the program
- the honorable Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT)   

Article: "Turnout Records Drive Bernie Success" by seamus.

Article: "Turnout in presidential primary breaks 1972 record" (Michigan) by Kathleen Gray and Todd Spangler.

Article: "2016 Primary Forecasts: Michigan Democratic Primary" by FiveThirtyEight.

 

Trade, Sanders and Trump - Curtis Ellis, Obamatrade.com/American Jobs Alliance    

 

Article: "Germany met 78% of its daily energy needs with renewables" by Svati Kirsten Narula.

Site: Dan Chapin for U.S. Senate (Colorado).

Article: "Constitution of the United States" Article 1 section 8: ...To establish Post Offices and post Roads;...

Article: "Sanders: 'My answer is a lot shorter' than Clinton on fracking" by Devin Henry.

 

Talk Media News Segment:
- Ellen Ratner, Bureau Chief 

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman 

Article: "White House Dismisses Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders on Trans-Pacific Trade Deal" by Charlie Spiering.

Article: "Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement" (TPP) by EFF.

Article: "North American Free Trade Agreement" (NAFTA) by Wikipedia.

Article: "RNC sues for Clinton's aides' emails" by TMN.

Article: "U.S.: ISIS detainee providing information on chemical weapons" by Barbara Starr.

Article: "Fiorina endorses Cruz" by Mariela Hernandez.

Article: "Poll: Trump leads Kasich and Rubio in home states" by William McDonald.

Article: "White House aware of, reviewing Iranian missile launch -spokesman" by Reuters.

Article: "Iranian elections deal blow to hardliners as reformists make gains" by Saeed Kamali Dehghan, Ian Black.

Article: "The White House is keeping up pressure on Iran to help search for an American who went missing there nine years ago" by AP.

Article: "Donald Trump may be an actual fascist. Ted Cruz is still more dangerous" by Steven Rosenfeld.

Article: "5 reasons Ted Cruz is even more dangerous than Donald Trump" by Robert Reich.

Article: "Ted Cruz's Father Suggested His Son Is 'Anointed' to Bring About 'End Time Transfer of Wealth'" by Bruce Wilson, October 17, 2013.

Article: "Video: Ted Cruz Anointed By Pro-Religious War, Antigay Pastors" by Bruce Wilson.

Article: "Whatcom View: Democrats caucus for president March 26" (Washington) by Natalie McClendon.

Article: "Washington GOP hold caucuses, but not to pick presidential candidate" by Natalie A Brand.

Bible: Genesis 1:28": "And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.".

Article: "Rafael Cruz: Evolution Is A Communist Lie, Gay Rights Endanger Children" by Brian Tashman.

Article: "Bush meeting with Rubio, Kasich and Cruz before debate: report" by Mark Hensch.

Article: "The Men Who Built America - A Preview" (robber barons) by Gerald D. SwicK.

Article: "Prosperity theology" (prosperity gospel, health and wealth gospel) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Tithe" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Sanders Illinois Campaign In Full Swing Before March 15 Primary" by Caroline Kenny.

Video: The Thom Hartmann Show with Rep. Bernie Sanders, October 29, 2004.

Petition: "Encourage Senator Bernie Sanders To Run For President In 2016 As A Democrat" (Progressive Democrats of America) by Andrea Miller, 2015.

 

Article: "New Study Confirms: Private 'Trade' Courts Serve the Ultra-Wealthy" by Richard Eskow.

Article: "Mandatory Self-Reliance Classes for Welfare Recipients? Utah Bill Is Red-State Cruelty at Its Worst" by Michael Arria.

Article: "Lawmaker Wants To Make The Poor Take 'Self Reliance' Training To Get Benefits" by Bryce Covert.

Article: "Donald Trump Has Turned Away Hundreds of American Workers to Hire Cheap Foreign Labor Instead" by Eric Levitz.

Article: "With Scalia's Death, Corporate America May Have A Harder Time Watering Down Collective Legal Rights" by Alan Pyke.

Article: "Don't Shut Down Post Offices, Reinvent Them" by Naomi Klein.

 

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