Operation Wetback: How Eisenhower Solved Illegal Border Crossings from Mexico>
Posted on 02/08/2008 7:15:11 AM PST by meandog
I am constantly amazed (and annoyed) when the Right claims that the US has been hijacked by the Left over the past few decades. This is utter nonsense - the actual evidence indicates that we've moved far, far to the Right.
Consider the case of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States (1953-1961), Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II, and a Republican. Funny thing is, by today's standards, Ike would be a flaming liberal, to the Left of all recent serious contenders for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
Ike on Taxes First, a quick definition of earned income vs. capital gains.
Earned income is income made from a job.
Capital gains, in contrast, is money made from the appreciation in value of something one owns (assets such as stocks, property, art, ...), rather than money earned from a job.
Average folks gets most of their income from their jobs, and thus the tax rate on earned income is most important to them. Rich people get most of their income from the appreciation of assets, and thus the tax rate on capital gains is more important to them.
Earned Income Tax: Ike's Time vs. Our Time
The highest tax bracket on earned income today is 35%. During Ike's administration, the highest tax bracket was 92% in 1953, and 91% thereafter [1]. Yes, taxes on the Rich were almost three times higher under the Republican Eisenhower compared to our current President, or compared to the Democratic administration of Bill Clinton!
Capital Gains Tax: Ike's Time vs. Our Time
It is considered to be almost the gospel today that capital gains should be taxed at a far lower rate than earned income. Today the maximum capital gains tax rate is a whopping 15% on assets that have been held for at least a year since purchase. This is why the middle class, who are dependant on earned income, effectively pay taxes at a higher rate than do the wealthy.
In Ike's day, capital gains were not treated differently from earned income, so the rich paid 91% tax on capital gains. From 91% to 15% - another reason why it's good to be rich!
Note that in 1955, in the middle of Ike's presidency, the typical (median) family paid less than 20% in all taxes [2]. By 2003, the total of all taxes paid by a typical family had more than doubled, to almost 40% of income.
So in Ike's day, the rich paid a lot of taxes, the middle-class paid a little taxes, and somehow it all worked out.
But Did Ike Want To Tax The Rich?
You might be curious as to whether Ike actually wanted such a high tax rate on the Rich, or was somehow forced into it by, say, a Democratically-controlled Congress. It turns out that when Ike ascended to the Presidency, both houses of Congress were indeed controlled by a single party - the Republican party. Republicans controlled the Presidency, the House, and the Senate - they could have done anything they wanted. And some in Congress did pressure Ike to roll back taxes on the rich, but he held the line, saying:
"We cannot afford to reduce taxes, reduce income,until we have in sight a program of expenditure that shows that the factors of income and outgo will be balanced."
Ike on Defense Ike was one tough hombre, the toughest of the tough. As Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, he had led millions of troops to take back Europe from the Nazis, and he got the job done. An astonishing feat, an honest "Mission Accomplished". Ike was President during the early part of the Cold War - a war where our opponent had actual weapons of mass destruction pointed at us. Let's see some of the things that Ike had to say about war, the millitary, and... Halliburton. Would Ike's views be considered to be Liberal or Right-wing today?
On the millitary in general "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms in not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense."
On the Iraq War "All of us have heard this term 'preventative war' since the earliest days of Hitler. I recall that is about the first time I heard it. In this day and time... I don't believe there is such a thing; and, frankly, I wouldn't even listen to anyone seriously that came in and talked about such a thing."
On Halliburton "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
Ike on the Labor Movement We'll let Ike speak for himself on this one:
"Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of their right to join the union of their choice."
" . . . Workers have a right to organize into unions and to bargain collectively with their employers, and . . . a strong, free labor movement is an invigorating and necessary part of our industrial society."
and while we're at it:
"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
Ike and Socialized Medicine
In 1960 Eisenhower signed into law the Kerr-Mills Bill, generally considered to be the forerunner of Medicare. For the first time, Kerr-Mills provided for government payment of medical bills of 70% of citizens aged 65 and older. When was the last time you heard of even a Democrat suggesting an expansion of socialized medicine?
Ike And Unilateralism Eisenhower knew the value of working closely with allies, and specifically of working out problems peaceully through the UN. While the Right would have you believe that the UN is some sort of recent liberal plot to displace the US, the reality is that the UN grew out of the alliance of 26 nations forged to fight the axis powers in WWII. Eisenhower was, in effect, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe for the United Nations. For example, when President Truman announced the surrender of Germany he said “General Eisenhower informs me that the forces of Germany have surrendered to the United Nations”.
Here, again, are Eisenhower's own words:
"The world must learn to work together, or finally it will not work at all."
"If the United Nations once admits that international disputes can be settled by using force, then we will have destroyed the foundation of the organization and our best hope of establishing a world order. "
"The people of the world genuinely want peace. Some day the leaders of the world are going to have to give in and give, it to them."
I think Ike was good on national defense. He seemed to keep a close eye on the soviets.
Last comment: I think the 50s were socially conservative, something most here would value and I don't think Ike tried to fight against that.
I’m afraid this is 1 time where I’d have to diverge from George Washington’s thoughts.
Well, maybe not quite that, but basically to say it’s a moot point.
Life seems to prove time and again that there tend to be (just) 2 sides to every coin. The devil’s in the details and the other “parties” (as in Italy, I suppose) are just spins on the 2 sides. Essentially, people cannot help but gravitate to 1 side or the other. It seems having parties - particularly 2 prominent 1s - is natural.
George was right to warn against, but I’m afraid it’s just something that happens and really can’t be avoided. People tend to flock together to promulgate a common purpose.
There was indeed a need for science and engineering excellence after Sputnik was launched and Ike seemed completely caught off guard--I believe he was playing golf at the Augusta National in October of 1957 when the news came in. Also Ike was roundly criticized for his projects--the vision of an interstate highway system (modeled after the autobahns he saw in Germany). I was a kid then, but I distinctly remember relatives claiming it was an intrusion into state's rights to build their own roads and charge tolls (although we did have some U.S. highways, Rt. 66, for instance). Not wanting to antagonize Mr. K, he also did not lift a finger to help Hungary in its independence move against the Soviets ... and he did little more than referee the Suez Crisis, or manage (when he could help the French and quickly snuff it out) the growing threat of communism in S.E. Asia...to me he was acting in some of the finest liberal traditions; hardly what you'd call Reaganesque. In saying that, however, I still remember him as being a pretty good president.
Operation Wetback: How Eisenhower Solved Illegal Border Crossings from Mexico>
Can you post what Ike did concerning illegal immigration as compared to what McCainiac wants to do? As I recall, Ike assigned someone to use force and remove them from the United States.
It was Eisenhower appointees to the Federal courts in the Southern districts that broke Jim Crow. The Supreme Court cases were simply affirming the decisions of the lower courts. All of those Judges were threatened by the Klan and one even had a bomb tossed at his mother's house (they thought he lived there).
Read your mind. Check the post right before your’s.
You’ll have a hard time selling this to the Plutocrats on FR, they’ll just call him a socialist.
Sputnik was another 'event' that was way overblown. We and the Russians were both working toward putting something in orbit. The Russians looking for propaganda managed to orbit a 2 pound grapefruit sized radio transmitter that could only say beep, beep, beep. I remember listening to it as it passed over on my older brothers SW radio.
A few months later, (and after a few spectacular launch pad failures which the Russians would never show) we orbited Explorer I, a 30 pound payload that actually did something other than beep. It measured cosmic rays and confirmed the existence of the Van Allen belt. It built by the JPL and was way ahead of anything the Russians had.
The Soviets were into stunts and the media always loves stunts.
I suppose the media reaction drove Congress to take control away from the military (the Army and Navy both had their parallel programs then) and create NASA to coordinate space research and development. We can argue if that is a good or bad thing but in reality, there was no science gap. It was all knee jerk reaction.
The point I was trying to make was that they were all doing their duty. MacArthur, Ike and Patton were all soldiers acting under their CIC's orders.
So were the northern liberals who aided them in blocking cr and anti-lynching legislation from the 1920s to the 1950s. The liberal’s liberal Adlai Stevenson was less friendly to civil rights than Ike in 1956....that’s why King voted for Ike.
Right, IBY, See #30...and while Ike began Operation Wetback, I suppose you're aware who signed the first "amnesty bill" when they all came back...and we KNOW, McCain was no Reagan either!
Hun? Ike’s views on civil rights and the Military Industrial Complex owed more to Taft conservativism than they did to “liberalism.” Thus, the implication is that we should support Ron Paul. The prudent and level-headed Paul, rather than unstable and slightly mad Jack Ripper McCain, comes closest to the Taft, and even Eisenhower, Republican tradition.
Eleanor Roosevelt was among the most outspoken opponents of Jim Crow. You can’t get much more lib than that. Truman (lib) integrated the military and the media, as lib as it was even then, was against it.
Spot on, and so was the article. Historically, Republicans were not the conservative party. In the late fifties, early sixties, they had two wings, the Rockefeller wing and the Goldwater wing. The Goldwater wing could almost be considered the Goldwater feather. It was never a majority of the Republican party, and Reagan is still the only member of the Goldwater wing to actually be elected, although both Bushes ran more as Reaganites than Rockefellers.
John Kennedy, before his assassination, was hoping to run against Goldwater, whom he knew he would beat easily. He felt fortunate to have run against Nixon in 1960, because Nixon was a west coast Republican. He did not believe he could beat a Republican from the Rockefeller wing of the party, either in 1960 or 1964.
The conservative Republican was an offshoot of mainstream Republicanism, with Goldwater as the prophet and Reagan as the Messiah.
I'll agree with you on Truman but the desegregation of the military was almost entirely symbolic. Units were still defacto segregated until Ike who made it defacto. Also, as far as I know, no Northern Conservatives opposed the military integration. The primary opposition came from Southern conservatives AND Southern liberals.
You're not trying to make me laugh again... are you?.
Reagan Would Not Repeat Amnesty Mistake
By Ed Meese (Reagan AG)
"So here we are, 20 years later, having much the same debate and being offered much the same deal. ""What would President Reagan do? For one thing, he would not repeat the mistakes of the past, including those of his own administration. He knew that secure borders are vital, and would now insist on meeting that priority first. He would seek to strengthen the enforcement of existing immigration laws. He would employ new tools—like biometric technology for identification, and cameras, sensors and satellites to monitor the border—that make enforcement and verification less onerous and more effective."
Yes, I don’t believe that significant comparisons can be made for Presidents a half century ago and now. Time has changed everything and leaders must be assessed within the context of their own time and actions.
Eleanor Roosevelt Selling FDR's Japanese Relocation
Representatives of Councils greet Mrs. Roosevelt,
Gila River Relocation Center.
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