Taxes: What People Forget About Reagan

[OmahaBlueDog]

From CNN Money, via Yahoo Finance



How might Reagan fare today?

Reagan's behavior might not pass muster with those voters today who insist their Congressmen treat every proposed tax increase as poisonous to the republic.

"By today's standards, the Gipper would easily qualify for status as a back-stabbing, treacherous RINO ," wrote Tax Analysts contributing editor Martin Sullivan, in an article for Tax Notes in May.

Thanks in part to the increases in defense spending during his administration, Reagan also didn't really reduce the size of government. Annual spending averaged 22.4% of GDP on his watch, which is above today's 40-year average of 20.7%, and above the 20.8% average under Carter.

Indeed, in one very symbolic respect he enlarged it. While in the early years of his presidency Reagan tried to shrink the IRS, by the end, the number of IRS employees hit an all-time high, according to Steuerle in his book Contemporary U.S. Tax Policy.


Read More at: http://finance.yahoo.com/taxes/article/110597/taxes-what-people-forget-about-reagan?mod=taxes-filing

[Zoeisright]

1. If there's one thing repukes are good at, besides destroying things, it's

rewriting history, in their favor. In other words, lying.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

2. Before Ray Gun

I could write off the interest on my car loan.
I could write off the interest on my credit cards.
I could entirely write off a car lease.

After all, this was my after tax income being spent to provide taxable income to the bankers, lenders, etc.

I paid into Social Security and actually reached my "cap" in or around May and got to take home a bigger paycheck for the rest of the year.

Short term Capital Gains were taxed at 90%

Rich people actually had to pay their fair share of the upkeep of the commons.

Roads got fixed.
Police and Firemen got paid to protect all of us.
Bridges got fixed.
Education at California Universities was paid for.
Schools actually taught students.
It was a much better country.

[avaistheone1]

3. Before Reagan most families did not have to have 2 breadwinners to make ends meet