Free Republic

In February 2009 I wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal entitled “Reaganomics v Obamanomics,” which argued that the emerging outlines of President Obama’s economic policies were following in close detail exactly the opposite of President Reagan’s economic policies. As a result, I predicted that Obamanomics would have the opposite results of Reaganomics. That prediction seems to be on track. When President Reagan entered office in 1981, he faced actually much worse economic problems than President Obama faced in 2009. Three worsening recessions starting in 1969 were about to culminate in the worst of all in 1981-1982, with unemployment...

Locked up, abandoned and forgotten, the vacant six-flat standing at the northeast corner of 57th and Maryland has no plaques or statues and few clues to its history. Now, the little-known childhood home of Ronald Reagan in Hyde Park could soon be torn down by the University of Chicago, which has quietly plotted its demolition, the Sun-Times has learned. The plan has made unlikely allies of conservatives who consider Reagan an icon and liberal Hyde Parkers who say the university’s secrecy is typical of how it has treated its neighbors for decades. It puts the school that provided the intellectual...

The tax rate extension, Obama celebrating it, Chris Matthews getting two tingles up his leg over Obama's smile at the signing ceremony. I saw a picture of Obama at the signing ceremony. He did not look particularly happy. It was a still shot. He looked rather bored. Joe Bite Me, the vice president, said that not extending the Bush tax rates would have caused a double-dip recession, but he's morally troubled by having to do it. I don't know. I think the Christmas parties have started early and they're still going on. Wait 'til you hear this. It was on...

"President Obama is considering whether to push early next year for an overhaul of the income tax code to lower rates and raise revenues in what would be his first major effort to begin addressing the long-term growth of the national debt." "Rather than increase individual and corporate tax rates to raise more revenues, a majority of the panel proposed eliminating or reducing many of the popular tax breaks for businesses and individuals that cost $1 trillion annually and using the additional revenues to lower rates and reduce deficits. The majority included five Republicans, among them two of the Senate’s...

If you try to drive, I will tax Main Street... Today we have Dear Leader 'negotiating' with the GOP re. precisely who gets fleeced after January 1st... this on top of $670B in wreckless Obama tax increases already. And if he does succeed in allowing Bush tax cuts to expire on the entrepreneurial class that Reagan said 'create most or all of the job growth' in the US -but whom Obama plainly considers class enemies- the feeble American economy will sure-as-you're-born be plunging straight into cardiac-arrest mode... Washington Examiner (highlights RR): The Obama administration is sending in high-ranking mediators in...

I've tried to answer my question searching online, but alas, all the sources are liberal, Reagan bashers (of course). A liberal who trolls another board I'm on is arguing that Reagan spent trillions. I think this is the new meme since the "I Want Your Money" movie came out. I've always read that Reagan was about cutting taxes, and spending. I know he reinvigorated the economy, boosted small business, lowered unemployment and ended the cold war - I know he didn't "tax and spend" the way this liberal is portraying it. And I can't even imagine the mess that he...

Since the start of Obama's administration, black liberals have been fulminating against his lack of focus on the black community and issues regarding their plight. These black liberals accuse him of being aloof, indifferent, and more dedicated to aiding his big-business cronies than creating economic policies to better the black middle class and the poor. Curiously, despite massive ideological differences, these are precisely the same complaints that many white conservative Americans have towards Obama. Irrespective of the red herring of race, everyone wants America to thrive economically and for all people to have enough resources to live prosperously. The bonds...

"It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now ... Cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus." – John F. Kennedy, Nov. 20, 1962, president's news conference -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Lower rates of taxation will stimulate economic activity and so raise the levels of personal and corporate income as to yield within a few years an increased – not...

Whether it's Reaganomics vs Mondalenomics, or Reaganomics vs Obamanomics, the argument is the same, and again it comes down to who's economic policy is best for America. Mondale ran on a platform that he would raise taxes and create new government bureaucracies to stimulate the economy and get America back on the road to recovery. "Ronaldus Maximus" ran on a platform of lower taxes, smaller government, private sector job creation, and an economic growth that would force the world to take notice. An economic plan he borrowed from John F Kennedy in the early 1960's, "Trickle Down Economics". Cut...

A new political movie -- with CLAYMATION appearances by RONALD REAGAN -- will expose the failures of Democrat / liberal economic policy, and show why Ronald Reagan's economic policies were correct. From the team that helped produce and market THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST comes "I WANT YOUR MONEY!" The film uses interviews from well-known public figures, experts, movie clips, dramatic portrayals, music, graphics and even comedic animation to tell the story in the plainest terms of the choice between the Obama and the Reagan views of the role of the federal government in our society. It also examines how...

A few days ago, I did a post in which I linked to an article about Sarah Palin. The article was published shortly after Palin was nominated for vice president. My purpose in citing the article was to say something about Palin and Israel. But I noticed something else in the article that I thought I’d bring up here. In the 2000 presidential cycle, Palin was mayor of Wasilla. And she was formally with . . . whose campaign? Steve Forbes’s. I think that most people think of Palin as a “social conservative,” as indeed she is. But she’s also...

RUSH: An NBC reporter actually stumbled upon an economic truth. It was an accident. It wasn't intentional, but still the NBC reporter got it right. Andrea Mitchell was talking to the correspondent Rehema Ellis about schools closing in Kansas City and elsewhere because of budget shortfalls, and Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, said, "This is not just Kansas City. This is the most drastic case we've seen so far, but this is a ripple effect we're seeing from the recession. What is going to happen to the students there and elsewhere across the country?" ELLIS: It's simple, too, Andrea, you...

Paul Krugman Criticizes Reaganomics Here's how to defend it Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics Krugman proves that a crafty, educated man can make statistics say whatever he wants them to. It's all about how you aggregate or disaggregate them and how wide or narrow an angle your snapshot captures.He showcases the blazing hot growth of the 50's and 60's that was the inevitable result of post-WW II rebuilding, and then criticizes Reagan because his growth didn't measure up to this impossible-to-maintain pace. So why does Fama (Eugene Fama, who trumpets the irrefutable success of Reaganomics) believe that something wonderful happened...

Introduction: The former Global Affairs editor of MONEYWORLD, Richard Maybury is one of the most respected business and economics analysts in America. His articles have appeared in major publications. Books include "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?" "Whatever Happened to Justice?" and "Evaluating Books: What Would Thomas Jefferson Think of This?" His current interest is "The Coming Great War." His writings have been endorsed by top business leaders, and he is a consultant to investment firms in the U.S. and Europe. He is editor of the newsletter Richard Maybury's U.S. & World Early Warning Report. Daily Bell: We understand that your...

Barack Obama says he plans to cut taxes for 95 percent of American workers. That sounds terrific, but there are three problems. One, it is meant to draw attention from the real core of the Obama tax plan: proposed increases in every major federal tax. Two, the structure of the cuts will create perverse incentives. And three, many of the people receiving “tax cuts” don’t pay taxes to begin with, meaning they’ll be in effect getting welfare. The first point requires but a simple list. Obama proposes to raise the top two individual income tax rates by 25 percent or...

LIVE VOTE What should Congress do next now that the House has rejected the $700 billion Wall Street bailout? [ ] Renegotiate the package so it can be passed quickly. [ ] Come up with a new plan. [X] Nothing. Let the markets sort it out.

1976 / 2008 Deja Vu All Over Again 1976: Prime lending rate of 7.5%, unemployment at 7.8%. A Republican adminsitration (Ford) that was clueless about economics (price freezes, asking people to wear WIN, whip inflation now, buttons.) We were still reeling from a gas crisis that had seen gas shortages and lines at the pumps that often wrapped around a city block. On the other hand, things were looking up around the world. The Ford administration had completed several treaties with the Soviet Union and turned the bear into a cub. Islamic terrorists had come to everyone's attention at the...

Debunking Reagan's Debunker Rich Karlgaard 02.25.08, 12:00 AM ET Last month during Bill Bennett's radio show, Morning in America, Bill asked me about a Paul Krugman column in the New York Times entitled, "Debunking the Reagan Myth." The title speaks for itself. Here are key Krugman passages: "[Reaganomics] did fail. The Reagan economy was a one-hit wonder. Yes, there was a boom in the mid-1980s, as the economy recovered from a severe recession. But while the rich got much richer, there was little sustained economic improvement for most Americans." "When the inevitable recession arrived, people felt betrayed--a sense of betrayal...

Reaganomics Hits France [Larry Kudlow] Now that French voters are giving him a decisive parliamentary majority, President Nicolas Sarkozy is going to launch a pro-growth, tax cutting, deregulation, reform plan. In other words, Reaganomics finally comes to France. Here at home, all the Democrats running for president (except New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson) want to raise personal and corporate taxes. They want to punish profits. So, let me get this right: while Reaganomics spreads from Eastern Europe—with low flat tax plans proliferating everywhere—into Western Europe, the supply-side model still has not infiltrated the Democratic party. And to make matters worse,...

Former top Reagan adviser Ed Meese said last night that New York Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer was dreaming if he thinks the Reagan vision of limited government is dead. “Reaganism is alive and kicking,” Meese told the State Policy Network, a group of representatives from free market think-tanks from across America yesterday evening at the Heritage Foundation. Meese was responding to statements Schumer had made to the editors of the New York Daily News early this week. “The old Reagan theory which dominated—which is, 'Government is bad, it's out of touch, chop off its hands as soon as it moves’...