Starve The Beast

The phrase “Starve the Beast” has been reported as being leaked from a memo written by a high level unnamed White House Staffer. Since the publication of this leaked phrase, a number of political pundits have offered their interpretation as what the phrase actually means as it is purportedly supposed to represent the ideological rallying cry of the White House Neocons. Some political pundits have theorized that the “Beast” mentioned in the phrase refers to civil rights programs, others theorize that it refers to entitlement programs such as medicade and social security, still others think that it refers to the fight against the repeal of Roe verses Wade. All of these conjectures are illogical and on balance just don’t jibe with the natural sense of the expression, “Starve the Beast”. The object of this post/paper is to shed some light on the real meaning of this phrase that makes more sense. The validity of the following explanation can found in how well it matches up with the actions of the Bush administration and the direction of its policies.

During Ronald Reagan’s first campaign for the Presidency, he discovered that he was in a pre-election battle for conservative votes with the American Libertarian political party. The Libertarians’ main ideological goal was to achieve minimal government. At the time the Libertarian party was in the throes of a serious internal division between those members who wanted NO FEDERAL GOVERNMENT and those who wanted MINIMAL FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. Reagan decided that he had to remove the Libertarian party as a serious contender for the conservative vote, so he quickly organized a campaign to bring those Libertarians who were comfortable with the goal of minimal federal government into the Republican Party. He was very effective in convincing them that their goals (minimal government) were identical to the goals of the Republican Party, and by pooling their strength they could win the Presidency and effect many changes in the structure of American government. The Libertarians came onboard and into the first Reagan administration. Over the years the Libertarians have widely integrated throughout the hierarchy of the Republican Party. They recognized that the GOP was indeed the perfect vehicle to provide them with access and support in their goal to destructively dismantle the Federal government. The constant strangulation of the funding for federal social programs by Republicans in power positions has been widely publicized by aggressive Tax Suppression groups as a laudable patriotic effort which is reducing the massive out-of-control federal bureaucracy.
The average American welcomed the idea of cutting out federal bureaucracy as a responsible characteristic of good government. However, John Q. Public didn’t have a clue as to the real ambition and goals of the former Libertarian element of the Republican Party, i.e., the complete dismantling and destruction of the federal government. During the Reagan years, much of the dismantling effort was conducted by Republicans in the House and the White House, but the Senate provided too much resistance to the more radical legislation sent over from the House.

Now let’s fast forward to the first Presidential campaign of George W. Bush. The Bush campaign was staffed by a different group of Libertarians, who had developed their own theories as to the best way to “take down the federal government” to put it in western jargon. The concept of their idea is not to depend on the Congress to dismantle the government, but use the office of the Presidency to do it. Their idea simply stated, is to spend the federal government into bankruptcy or insolvency. This was the driving force behind George W’s obsession with starting a war with Iraq. There is no greater drain on a nation’s finances than that imposed by the cost of engaging in a full blown war. Attacking Iraq offered little risk, as it had very limited resources, so that retaliatory measures directly against the homeland of the United States would not be possible. Once Sadam Hussein was removed and Iraq secured under American control, then the oil fields would be available to American oil interests as an additional bonus. The White House sold the military brass on the Iraq venture with the promise of new weapon systems and ordinance to replace the old weapons that the military would use in Iraq. Colin Powell took the job of Secretary of State mainly to advance the career of his son Michael, who Bush appointed as FCC chairman. Powell was needed by the Bush administration to provide a credible voice for the administration in its efforts to convince the Congress and the UN that Iraq had developed and was planning to use Weapons of Mass Destruction. However, prior to the Powell and Bush appearances before the UN General Assembly, terrorists on September 11 flew scheduled airline planes into the twin towers in New York and into the Pentagon in Arlington Virginia. This unexpected development gave Bush the opportunity to tie this horrific deadly attack on America to Sadam Hussein. Subsequently a grief stricken nation gave the President unrestricted permission for any retaliatory measures that he deemed necessary. Bush also extracted authorization from a traumatized Congress to spend billions in Iraq for both the war effort and the post-war rebuilding expense.
Following the invasion of Iraq by American forces billions of dollars flowed into those American corporations that were supporting the occupation and rebuilding activities in Iraq. The Bush administration had not planned for any serious resistance to the American occupation and the growth of domestic and foreign resistance fighters over time became a permanent thorn in the side of George W. Bush. The steady loss of American soldier’s lives over the period of occupancy has kept a glaring news spotlight on Iraq and the public has started questioning the worth of such a venture which has accounted for the loss of so many American lives along with the waste of hundreds of billions of dollars. It was the intent of the Bush plan to have Iraq quickly pacified by now so that he could keep pouring unrestricted and unaccounted billions into the rebuilding of Iraq. But this was becoming more difficult as public opinion turned overwhelming against American involvement in Iraq.
However, another stroke of luck for the Bush financially destructive plan came ashore from the waters off the Gulf coast of America in the form of hurricane Katrina. This huge destructive storm ravaged the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, and put the city of New Orleans under water. Bush immediately secured $60 billion from Congress to address the disaster and start the rebuilding effort. The pending expenses that we currently have on the national plate that we must fund are the following:
(1) Tax cut renewal
(2) Funds for support of military operations in Afghanistan
(3) Funds for support of military operations in Iraq
(4) Funds for rebuilding operations in Iraq
(5) Funds for rebuilding & relief in New Orleans
(6) Funds for rebuilding & relief in Mississippi
(7) Funds for rebuilding & relief in Alabama
(8) Funds for relief in Florida & North Carolina

It is obvious that the country cannot remain solvent if it is forced to meet the financial goals of all eight of these immediate and pressing needs. The Bush administration has said that it with the help of the Congress will fully fund all eight requirements. Looking at the list above, I submit that it should become clear what the phrase “Starve the Beast” (that was reported to have been leaked out of the White House) really means. If money is spent for all these ventures, there will be no funds left to fund even the barest essential governmental services. Hence, without funds domestic programs, entitlement programs, and Medicare will not be able to operate.
This is where we stand as of this date, September 15, 2005, and George Bush will remain as President until 2008. I have no idea what will be the outcome over the next six months or even the next three months. But I do know at this juncture that the Libertarian obsession with minimal federal government is close to being realized. However, when the Beast is starved, untold millions in the general public will also be starved and I don’t know if that “starving beast” will let George W. Bush stay in the White House through the end of his term, along with his cohorts in Congress….