"Starve the beast" is a political strategy employed by American conservatives to limit government spending by cutting taxes, to deprive the federal government of revenue in a deliberate effort to force it to reduce spending. The term "the beast", in this context, refers to the United States federal government and the programs it funds, using mainly American tax money, particularly social programs such as education, welfare, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Ronald Reagan gives a televised address from the Oval Office, outlining his plan for tax reductions in July 1981.
Total tax revenues were calculated as a percentage of GDP for the U.S. in comparison to the OECD and the EU 15.
Conservatism in the United States
Conservatism in the United States is based on a belief in limited government, individualism, traditionalism, republicanism, and limited federal governmental power in relation to U.S. states. It is one of two major political ideologies of the United States. Conservative and Christian media organizations and American conservative figures are influential, and American conservatism is a large and mainstream ideology in the Republican Party and nation. As of 2021, 36 percent of Americans consider themselves conservative, according to polling by Gallup, Inc.
William F. Buckley Jr., an author who founded National Review magazine in 1955
President Ronald Reagan holding a "Stop Communism in Central America" t-shirt on the South Lawn of the White House in March 1986
An American Legion postcard urging parents to teach religion to their children as a civic duty, c. 1930s
Russell Kirk, conservative theorist and author of The Conservative Mind, published in 1953
