Political Insider:
It's Reaganomics in reverse and you'll be hearing a lot of it in the next two years. While the Reagan/Cheney economic strategy was to run up deficits to "starve the beast" for new government spending programs, the unpopularity of the very expensive (some estimates say $10 billion a month) Iraq War has provided an opening for Democrats to propose universal health care coverage without raising taxes or cutting domestic spending.
Democrats have promised to institute a policy of 'pay-go' to limit deficit spending; any bill that proposes new spending must also include a way to pay for it. This will require a lot of robbing Peter to pay Paul. New spending will be paid for with cuts in other spending.
It's nice to see this 'starve the beast' strategy blow up in conservatives' faces. It's awfully hard to argue that there's no money when you shelling out cash hand over fist to pay for war in Iraq. Another reaganite idea is coming back to bite them in the ass -- a 'peace dividend.' If there's no war to pay for, domestic spending can increase drastically.
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