The Tax That Turned Ronald Reagan Right [View All]

[marmar]

from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:




The Tax That Turned Ronald Reagan Right
January 29, 2011

With the centennial of our 40th President’s birth fast approaching, how about a shout-out for the soak-the-rich tax rates that he so despised — and more civic-minded Hollywood stars so enthusiastically embraced.

By Sam Pizzigati


Did Ronald Reagan change history? Well, we all change history in our own way. The more interesting question: What changed Ronald Reagan?

What changed the labor advocate — with enough street cred to get elected president of Hollywood’s actors union — into a labor basher extraordinaire? What turned Reagan the standard-issue New Deal Democrat into the 20th century’s premiere pusher for almost entirely unrestrained “free enterprise”?

The answer? According to Reagan himself, the federal income tax — specifically the over 90 percent top rate on top-bracket income that went into effect during World War II — changed Ronald Reagan. That tax levy absolutely incensed the amiable actor.



At his Hollywood height, actor Ronnie Reagan was making $400,000 per picture. With the top federal tax rate over 90 percent, Reagan used to tell his White House chief of staff Donald Regan, he always chose to “loaf” around rather than make more than two pictures a year.

“Why should I have done a third picture, even if it was Gone with the Wind?” Regan remembers Reagan asking. “What good would it have done me?” ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/the-tax-that-turned-ronald-reagan-right/