Sobering words from David Stockman, former Director of the Office of Management and Budget (1981–1985) under President Ronald Reagan. (FYI, this guy is widely considered one of the major, if not the major, architects of Reaganomics.)

In 1981 the national debt was $1 trillion. Today, national debt it is $14 trillion. The economy in the same period is 3.5 to 4 times bigger, the national debt is 14 times bigger. What we’ve essentially done is a leveraged buy out of the American economy.

We are destroying the economy on Uncle Sam’s credit card in the idea that it this [Bush tax cuts] will cause consumers to spend [more money] for some more junk from Home Depot – that’s made in China.

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For more on Stockman:

• “The day of national reckoning has arrived. We will not have a conventional business recovery now, but rather a long hangover of debt liquidation and downsizing — as suggested by last week’s news that the national economy grew at an anemic annual rate of 2.4 percent in the second quarter. Under these circumstances, it’s a pity that the modern Republican Party offers the American people an irrelevant platform of recycled Keynesianism when the old approach — balanced budgets, sound money and financial discipline — is needed more than ever.” — via Four Deformations of the Apocalypse
• So Many Ids, So Few Super-Egos
• Why I’m a Recovering Republican
• Sovereign Debt Restructuring and The Keynesian Endpoint?
• Republicans Supporting Keynesian Economics All Along?

Admittedly, I’m a fan of Stockman because he’s one of the few old school, fiscal conservative Republicans (where I tend to fall politically). Not the new breed of “neoconservative” who chants fiscal responsibility but can’t seem to do basic budgetary math (e.g. tax cuts & rising national debt).