Today is President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday, as you can probably tell by the outpouring of conservative hero-worship. It’s so interesting, because if that guy ran for office today as a Republican, he’d be roundly trashed by Fox News and tea-partied into oblivion faster than you can say “Morning in America.” Let’s recall a few points about Reagan, courtesy of Think Progress (see original posts for links supplying backup) (HT Christopher):
1. Reagan was a serial tax raiser. As governor of California, Reagan “signed into law the largest tax increase in the history of any state up till then.” Meanwhile, state spending nearly doubled. As president, Reagan “raised taxes in seven of his eight years in office,” including four times in just two years. As former GOP Senator Alan Simpson, who called Reagan “a dear friend,” told NPR, “Ronald Reagan raised taxes 11 times in his administration – I was there.” “Reagan was never afraid to raise taxes,” said historian Douglas Brinkley, who edited Reagan’s memoir. Reagan the anti-tax zealot is “false mythology,” Brinkley said.
2. Reagan nearly tripled the federal budget deficit. During the Reagan years, the debt increased to nearly $3 trillion, “roughly three times as much as the first 80 years of the century had done altogether.” Reagan enacted a major tax cut his first year in office and government revenue dropped off precipitously. Despite the conservative myth that tax cuts somehow increase revenue, the government went deeper into debt and Reagan had to raise taxes just a year after he enacted his tax cut. Despite ten more tax hikes on everything from gasoline to corporate income, Reagan was never able to get the deficit under control….
4. Reagan grew the size of the federal government tremendously. Reagan promised “to move boldly, decisively, and quickly to control the runaway growth of federal spending,” but federal spending “ballooned” under Reagan. He bailed out Social Security in 1983 after attempting to privatize it, and set up a progressive taxation system to keep it funded into the future. He promised to cut government agencies like the Department of Energy and Education but ended up adding one of the largest – the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, which today has a budget of nearly $90 billion and close to 300,000 employees. He also hiked defense spending by over $100 billion a year to a level not seen since the height of the Vietnam war.
Raising taxes, tripling the deficit, and growing the federal government. How’s that gonna play on Hannity?
Plus, you think unemployment is bad now?
Unemployment jumped to 10.8 percent after Reagan enacted his much-touted tax cut, and it took years for the rate to get back down to its previous level.
And how about this one, sure to please the Tancredo wing of the party?
Reagan signed into law a bill that made any immigrant who had entered the country before 1982 eligible for amnesty. The bill was sold as a crackdown, but its tough sanctions on employers who hired undocumented immigrants were removed before final passage. The bill helped 3 million people and millions more family members gain American residency. It has since become a source of major embarrassment for conservatives.
Also, Reagan’s first nominee to the Supreme Court was Sandra Day O’Connor, whose moderate votes over the years kept abortion rights and affirmative action in higher education largely intact.
I’m honestly not sure where that guy would fall in the political spectrum if he ran today. But it sure wouldn’t be as a conservative Republican.
Republicans used to be about law and order, not vengeance or anti-government. Republicans used to support some gun control, since it helped with law and order — background checks, no guns for the mentally ill, that sort of thing. Republicans used to support taxes that went to domestic paramilitary: police, SBI, etc. Republicans supported the immigration overhaul in an effort to create more law and order, though the tough sanctions never showed up.
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p>Reagan was a conservative, he just wasn’t as anti-government as his own rhetoric suggested.
I miss Republicans. (NB: That post is from 2004 so it’s obviously dated, particularly the part where he refers to McCain as someone who still operates in the real world. But well worth reading nevertheless.)
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p>Of course he’d be trashed. A dead guy running for office! It’d be like watching a Michael Dukakis campaign again.
that’s what passes for humor in today’s conservative movement. Another loss, since Reagan was actually funny sometimes.
Reagan also implemented the tax on unemployment compensation, one of the most stupid tax laws ever.
Today’s right wing is far more attached to mythology than truth, their treatment of Ronald Reagan is a case in point.
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p>I appreciate you and Christopher highlighting the truth about Ronald Reagan.
his actual policies. They always have. Policies have always been irrelevant to the movement which gains its real force from attacking liberals.
Reagan’s actual policies were no secret during the ’80’s. For example, it was pointed out that footage his campaign used of him signing a bill into law as Governor of California was actually film of him legalizing abortion. Did the anti-abortion movement turn on Reagan? Nope.
Similarly, the ballooning deficit was no secret. Reagan was still a hero to the right as long he was attacking people on Social Security Disability or trying to defund Legal Services.
The idea that anything Reagan did would actually embarrass the right is comforting to those of us not on the right–but it’s not true.
Lets not forget that while Reagan wasn’t Milton Friedman, he was an enormously awful man. The Reagan legacy is an emaciated labor movement which has suffered from thirty years of violent attacks by business – attacks encouraged by Reagan permanently replacing the air traffic controllers during a strike. It’s also an incredibly weakened welfare state, a complex and often regressive tax code, deindustrialized inner cities, and almost a generations worth of suppressing alternative energy sources.
Reagan sounds like a DSCC type of man.
Reagan is a winner almost by default. Name another Republican in living memory who is remembered with any fondness as having accomplished that much. Bush, Sr. and Ford were ejected after one term. Nixon resigned in disgrace. Bush Jr. and Hoover were loathed.
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p>They got Reagan and Ike, and that’s about it. I’m surprised they don’t do more to lionize Eisenhower…
because Eisenhower would almost certainly be a Democrat today. Among other things, his famous warning against the rise of the military-industrial complex would be anathema to the current GOP. Heck, on some matters, Tricky Dick “Clean Air Act” “Affirmative Action” Nixon would be a Democrat today.
… Nixon on the Green ticket today.
Nixon was nothing if he wasn’t cynical. I think the Greens banned cynicism in their party platform.
through your biased lens, a lens which is so easily manipulated: Bill “the hummer” Clinton, and Jimmy “malaise” Carter. And who can forget Hey hey LBJ how many kids have you killed today.
I referred to poll numbers and resignation. You are referring to…what exactly? LBJ and Carter aren’t in the same league as president as Kennedy or Clinton poll-wise, and I never said they were.
That’s what people liked about him. I was reminded of that when clips were shown during the days following his death of him speaking. Some Presidents are better heads of state; others better heads of government; occasionally you get someone who is pretty good at both. Reagan was definitely the first of these choices. In other words, I would have prefered a different Prime Minister, but he made a pretty decent King.
optimistic about 20-Mule Team Borax. Try and find some of that today. He was an actor. He was a better actor than most Presidents, but I don’t think that’s a qualification for the office.
when it is just a denial of reality. And Reagan was always the appearance of something, rarely the real thing. He was..
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p>a man who played the role of national father who was divorced and alienated from his children.
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p>a man whose actions in government consistently violated the principles he claimed to stand for–lower taxes, less government.
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p>a man who represented law and order and illegally shipped arms to Iran to fund the Contras.
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p>a man who claimed that he liberated German death camps in WW II, though all he had done was edit films of them in Hollywood.Washington Post’s Lou Cannon in 1984 (3/5/84):
It’s a difference between Democrats and Republicans that we don’t make our favorite Presidents into idols. We recognize, for example, FDR’s weaknesses–marital, martial, and political. That’s why Micaela’s post with a title concerning JFK and education had no resonance. Plenty of people love the Kennedys and JFK. But we know the difference between their good and bad deeds.
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p>That’s why Reagan’s 100 birthday is important. It’s a time to reflect.
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