St. Ronald? I don't think so...LA Times sorts out GOP misconceptions about Reagan.

[ourbluenation]

GOP candidates genuflect to his legacy. Trouble is, he didn't do what they say.
By Michael Kinsley

February 1, 2008

In the last few weeks, the Democratic Party has turned on Bill Clinton with the ferocity of 16 years of pent-up resentments. He will not be cut any more slack, and neither will his wife. Meanwhile, the Republican primaries have turned into a Ronald Reagan adoration contest. Neither ex-president deserves what he is getting. Clinton is a victim of long memories; Reagan is a beneficiary of short ones.

snip

But the biggest fairy tale about Reagan is the most central one: about taxes and spending. It is one thing to sit in a North Vietnamese prison in the early 1970s, dreaming of a California governor who one day will balance the federal budget. It is another to imagine that it actually happened.

When Reagan took office in 1981, federal receipts (taxes) were $517 billion and outlays (spending) were $591 billion, for a deficit of $74 billion. When he left office in 1989, taxes were $999 billion and spending was $1.14 trillion, for a deficit of $141 billion. As a share of the economy, Reagan did cut taxes, from 19.6% to 18.4%, and he cut spending from 22.2% to 21.2%, increasing the deficit from 2.6% to 2.8%. The deficit went as high as an incredible 5% of GDP during his term. As a result, the national debt soared by almost two-thirds. You can fiddle with these numbers -- assuming it takes a year or two for a president's policies to take effect, or taking defense costs out -- and the basic result is the same or worse. Whatever, these numbers hardly constitute a "revolution."

snip

If the GOP is looking around for an icon to worship, it might consider Bill Clinton. He cut spending from 21.4% of GDP to 18.5% -- three times as much as Reagan. True, he raised taxes from 17.6% to 19.8%, but that's still a smaller chunk than when Reagan left office. And he left us with an annual surplus that threatened to eliminate the national debt. What's more, I think he's available.



http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-kinsley1feb01,0,2123974.story?track=mostemailedlink

[ourbluenation]

1. 6 recs and no replys. weird. n/t

[Hekate]

3. Okay, here's the 7th Rec and a Kick

It's amazing how many people I've spoken to have no idea what Reagan did as governor, and how deified he became after his presidency.

Hekate

[XboxWarrior]

12. the reagan myth has always.......

mystified me.

He was an idiot, just like Bush. (but he was a 2-bit actor)

But that phrase, "Tear down these walls", has become his "legacy"

He did no more to stop the U.S.S.R., than I did.

That empire simply failed.......(maybe the Afghan war aided it)

Somehow the Republican party has managed to make him an "Idol"

Hell, it works for that stupid show, "American Idol"

Go Figure.

[DemGa]

2. Well this certainly deserves a look...nt

[blm]

4. As many of us have said for years - Bill Clinton was the best Republican president we ever had.

And if Bill hadn't spent the 90s PROTECTING the secrecy and privilege of both Reagan and Bush1's administrations, there would be no SAINT Ronnie legacy at all. And NO Bush would have been able to get near the WH ever again, let alone live in it.


http://consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html

The Reagan-Bush thugs should have been in jail by the end of 1994, not planning their 2000 WH run.

[UpInArms]

5. when I think about Bill's legacy,

I think about

NAFTA (a RayGun wetdream that Lumpballs creamed his jeans over)
GATTS - a sovereignity destroying treaty
keeping Greenscum on as Fed Chairman - a man who I can hardly wait for his death so that I can cover his grave in animal excrement)
allowing the last of the Fairness Doctrine to be destroyed
a botched welfare reform that hurt many more than it was good

just my 2 cents

[blm]

7. I think the biggest Reagan wetdream moment was "The era of big government is over"

That was the biggest Dem rollover and show pink belly to the entire governing philosophy of Ronald Reagan.....ever.

[UpInArms]

10. oh, that was good, blm!

I hope my memory is not dimming - I do occasionally try to not remember all of the RayGun/Bush/Bush/Bush/Bush stuff - my head begins to hurt too much

:hi:

[Bitwit1234]

6. At least til 1964 Reagan was a card carrying democrat.

he didn't go over to the republicans til he wanted to run for an office and the democrats wouldn't pick him.

[leftofthedial]

8. Bill Clinton was basically a moderate repuke

slightly to the right of Nixon

[SpiralHawk]

9. Republicon homelanders are not into facts. They are into beliefs.

Alas. They do not want real knowledge. They want to cling to the hollow reality they have been propagandizing into believing. Alas for America.

[ourbluenation]

11. Why did this change into a Bill Clinton thread?

:shrug:

Anyways, I for one have had it with the St. Ronny bs and glad to see someone calling those GOP'rs out on it.

[Hekate]

14. The "party poopers" are crawling out of the woodwork. Take that phrase as you will. nt

[seasat]

13. Reagan's Liberal Legacy

This article by Joshua Green from 2003 is the best I've seen at debunking the myth of Reagan. It points out how Reagan raised taxes 4 times including an increase in corporate tax rates. He passed the progressive earned income tax credit. He actually wanted total nuclear disarmament. He raised the size of government by 66,000 people while Clinton cut it by 373,000 people. He expanded government by creating the cabinet level Department of Veteran's Affairs. He started the defense cuts that continued under Bush I and Clinton.

While there's quite a bit to dislike about Reagan, he really wasn't the ideologue that * has turned out to be. I love pointing out Green's article to conservatives and watching their heads explode.