Debunking Reagan's Debunker

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 that Mr. Clinton was able to ride into the White House."

Paul Krugman and the rest of his NY Times ilk are the biggest scums of the world. He is an unbalanced, hateful dyed-in-the-wool liberal who can't even spell the word "objective". I don't even know why I'm wasting the energy to hammer out this invective against this idiot. He doesn't even deserve the time or attention.

Happy belated b'day President Reagan. Your revolution was genuine and its positive impact are still relevant in today's global economy.

Unfortunately there are plenty on the right who happily misrepresent Reagan's record in an attempt to make bad economic policies more palatable.

As Michael Reagan rightfully states, his father was a free trader but he did not confuse it with giving the store away. He recognized that runaway free trade endangered American industry and he took steps to protect it.

Take the case of Harley-Davidson. My father protected this American manufacturer of motorcycles against lower-priced Japanese imports. When he acted in behalf of an American company, Kawasaki and Honda reacted by moving their plants to the U.S. and created American jobs for American workers.

His policy was so successful that although he gave five years of protective tariffs to Harley-Davison, they didn’t even need that long a time before they could turn their company around. Given a level playing field they proved their superiority as an American manufacturer.

Ronald Reagan did the same thing with semiconductors, and the auto and steel industries. He also forced the Japanese and others to open up their markets to American products so that trade would be fair. When that didn’t happen he would impose tariffs on those products coming into the U.S., thus protecting American manufacturers.

Sure, he was a free trader who wanted too open up trade, but he always sought first to protect the sovereignty of the United States and its manufacturing base. He did not confuse free trade with giving the store away.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelReagan/2007/10/10/where%e2%80%99s_the_fire

Its easier to scream “Protectionism” while making a cross with their fingers than to recognize the economic danger they’ve put us in. Our national security has also become secondary to stockholder concerns. When our department of defense simply can’t track who makes what for our military, its a problem.

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