starve the beast

English

Etymology

According to Bruce Bartlett, the second sense was first used by an anonymous Reagan staffer in “We didn’t starve the beast. It’s still eating quite well—by feeding off future generations.”

Verb

starve the beast (third-person singular simple present starves the beast, present participle starving the beast, simple past and past participle starved the beast)

1. (US) To progressively weaken or destroy a dangerous or powerful entity through attrition.
2. (US politics) To deprive the federal government of revenue by cutting taxes in an effort to force it to limit spending.
   • 2010 February 22, Catherine Rampell, “A New Social Contract, but Which One?”, in The New York Times‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-10-16:

     Whatever the mechanism, attempts to starve the beast through revenue shortages somehow seem to make the beast all the more voracious.

References

• “starve the beast” under “starve, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Further reading

• Starve the beast on Wikipedia.Wikipedia