Posted on 06/12/2004 3:19:36 PM PDT by Pokey78
Here's another point to ponder - Reagan never raised income taxes and that was the key to his economic success. The increases weren't really forced on Reagan by liberals. He saw the handwriting on the wall and knew that additional revenue was required to help keep the deficit numbers lower.
The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 was a great achiveement by itself. It cut income taxes from a high rate of 50%, down to 28% and tacked on a low marginal rate of 15%. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 was a major accomplishment for PresReagan and was one of the most important pieces of tax legislation since WWII.
Ain't that the truth. Spend more than a decade demonizing and ridiculing the man, and when it fails, claim that he "really was one of us."
I think what it really is --- now that they've seen that Reagan -- even after 10 years of Alzheimers -- is still the most popular modern president by far and are going to try to reshape the memory of what he was.
If 10 people had shown up for the funeral, we would not be seeing them write articles like this.
That is exactly the thought I had when I read this part. He was a decent Hollywood actor, unlike the majority of them today.
Ideas like self-government, smaller government, less taxes, and using strength or force to spread freedom are all liberal ideas. Reagan's other liberal characteristics are he gave strong support to technology and small business. I guess that's why Reagan and some of today's conservatives are sometimes referred to as classic liberals.
There are but two words that can adequately describe your hypothesis, RM: B--- S---.
I trust that you are "six digit" with your work in the media.
If not, you should be!
The tax increases of which you speak occurred in 1982 and 1983 - and you better believe the Right pounded the hell out of Reagan over them. I have no doubt the Right, me included, would do similarly pound W.
To be fair, Reagan's tax cut in 1981 was so huge that the later increases seemed marginal, if not negligible.
"The Communist party operatives who manipulated the movies for their own narrow agendas are to this day being hailed as "idealists aglow with noble intent". Reagan was closer to the truth when he said that the "only true Hollywood blacklist was one that had quietly worked in our freelance business to deny work to those who took anti-Communist positions and to give those jobs to the Communist types or their dupes who could be suckered into supporting the cause."
YES, NOW WE HAVE MICHEAL MOORE AND THE TOO WILLINGLY DOPED UP AND DUMBED DOWN HOLLYWOOD FLUNKIES PASSING AS "ARTISTS". What a joke, and it's on them!
The only "leftie" thing that President Reagan did that I know of was to get O'Connor into the Supreme Court for the sake of feminism.
He and his advisors did a most excellent job of starving Communism and building our military up to something more realistic for defense.
If you want historical comparisons, keep in mind that it was respectable to take up causes that were later found to be riddled with Communist infiltrators in the late l940's. Then came the rise of a young Richard M. Nixon, who took on the Communist-dominated Democrats of California, and used this as a springboard first to the House of Representatives, then to the US Senate. In the Senate, at the same time, there was another WW II veteran, Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin, who began to reveal the true extent of the Communist infiltration of both the Democrat party and the Progressive branch of the Republican party. The upshot was that the Progressive party disappeared altogether, absorbed into the Democrats.
While these winds were blowing in Washington, a mighty storm was tearing through Hollywood. The almost total dedication of the powerful in Hollywood to the Soviet line was thrown into the open, and a blacklist was established. About this time, Ronald W. Reagan re-examined all his old beliefs, and opted to become an American.
Another aside note that is not much touched on. In 1964, a young 16-year-old girl was a "Goldwater Girl", and was on board as part of the "Western" conservative movement. This young girl grew up, went to Wellesley, and came out a partisan of the Black Panthers. She went to law school, married the future governor of Arkansas, and became one of the persecutors of Richard Nixon.
So if people are going to talk about political reversals over time, It is always well to keep in mind that other champions did not have that pure a pedigree from the past.
Reagan always said that he never left the Democrat Party -- the Party left him.
That could have been part of it, but there was alwo the problem that Ms Wyman was far more successful. His career was declining while hers was on the rise. It was a money and status thing.
**On June 11, 2004, Jane Wyman broke decades of silence regarding her former husband, President Ronald Reagan, saying, "America has lost a great president and a great, kind and gentle man."**
There are four words to counter your juvenile rhetoric. "Historical fact" and "personal opinion".
It's an historical fact, with the outbreak of WWII in Europe in 1939, the federal government began expanding the national defense system. This stimulated industrial growth and led to rapid declines in unemployment. With America's direct involvement in WWII following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, productivity went through the roof as assembly plants geared up for 24-7 production schedules. People went back to work in huge numbers and America was at full employment. The Great Depression was over.
As for FDR. I view his Presidency as somewhat of a failure during the years of the Great Depression. Throughout FDR's first two terms, the US was caught in economic hardtimes, led by high unemployment. In 1939, the unemployemt rate was at 15%! OTOH, I think FDR did a good job leading the nation through the war years. He got some outstanding support from Churchill and from Generals Marshall, Eisenhower and MacArthur, but Roosevelt was the man who sat at the top of the food chain and made the final command decisions of life and death.
In fact, it is the Left who are the racists. The examples abound. yeah it's called the nazi party and political correctness.
I think it's another example of how Classical Liberalism (believe in individual freedom, not the current most-modern, immoral, socialism) is today's conservatism. Too bad the reporter didn't get it.
What would Locke and Voltaire think?
From the article:
According to a recent Treasury Department study, TEFRA alone raised taxes by almost 1 percent of the gross domestic product, making it the largest peacetime tax increase in American history. An increase of similar magnitude today would raise more than $100 billion per year.
First off, I can't imagine that this is true, the numbers must have been skewed in some way as Reagan was an avid tax cutter, not a tax raiser. Even it were true, I can't imagine Bush agreeing to something like this, regardless of the Congress.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.