(Hmmm... tried posting this the first time and the server hung so I quickly copied the text to the clipboard. Server eventually came back but never accepted the new post...)

The infamous "bathtub" metaphor of the optimal size of government has been a part of core Republican cult orthodoxy for forty plus years, courtesy of Grover Norquist, its originator. He was the one that devised the "no new taxes" communication strategy, knowing it was incredibly simple / quick to communicate, completely unambiguous to voters, and easy to "enforce" against those who violated the pledge by wiping them out in the next primary.

This fixation took root in parallel with supply side economics as a means of demonizing all "bad" social spending while still supporting massive spending on defense, etc. and associated tax cuts as self-reinforcing benefits that stimulated the economy to grow to result in MORE net taxes being paid (lower percentage of a "vastly higher number.")

That was the lie. The reality is $30 trillion in accumulated debt with statistics on poverty, public health, etc. that trail nearly every comparable industrial democracy.

WTH