From Vanity Fair by William D. Cohan, September 9:

“The So-Called Conservative Party Betrayed Every Principle”: Reagan Veteran Warns That Trump’s GOP Is Driving the U.S. Toward Fiscal Ruin

David Stockman is a national treasure. Now 73, he was once the wunderkind of American politics, first as a young congressman from Michigan, representing the fourth district in the heart of the state, and then as Ronald Reagan’s first director of the Office of Management and Budget. He was all of 34 years old back then.

His mission for Reagan was to somehow increase defense spending, cut taxes, and balance the federal budget at the same time. A quick study, and an attendee of the Harvard Divinity School, Stockman latched on to the then trendy economic idea of supply-side economics—the convoluted notion that by cutting taxes, individuals would have more money to spend on goods and services, spurring companies to hire more workers, build more factories, sell more things, and make the economy hum. It didn’t work then, and the Trumpian version—slashing the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35% as part of the 2018 tax law—hasn’t worked now.