“Reagan saw the dangers in L.B.J.’s Great Society,” Ms. Palin said. “He refused to sit down and be silent as our liberties were eroded by an out-of-control centralized government that overtaxed and overreached in utter disregard of constitutional limits.”
Disrupting the Borg is expensive and time consuming!
Recent Comments
Reagan will ultimately be known as the President who destroyed 2 evil empires!
Which two?
Russia and America? Russia looks do be doing not too bad compared to Reagan’s time. America, not so much.
I think Reagan was a persuasive actor. Americans like a good actor. He made people feel America was doing better than it really was. Some even believe he belongs ranked with Washington and Lincoln. I guess you can tell I don’t.
Some Reagan factoids:
-the California budget grew by 122 percent during his eight years as governor, bureaucracy increased during Reagan’s administration from 158,000 to 192,000, increased California state taxes nearly $1 billion in his first year in office, California state income taxes nearly tripled. During his eight years in office (as President), Reagan increased federal spending by 53 percent, added a quarter of a million new civilian government employees, escalated the War on Drugs, created the “drug czar’s office,” and lowered the value of your 1980 dollar to 73 cents.
http://mises.org/daily/5009/The-Reagan-Fraud-and-After
But I do like Sarah Palin a lot. I love how some people in America are going rabid over her. It shows their true colors. I don’t think I want her as President though. She would be good in some post of government in a Michele Bachmann presidency.
“He made people feel America was doing better than it really was.”
Hmm, something not right about that, let’s see if this is better……. He made people feel America was doing better.——– There fixed it!
It was necessary. After Vietnam, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Iran and a litany of other adverse events (people only giggled when they spoke of Ford), the American psyche was in shambles. Reagan showed us, not only was it ok to be proud of our nation, but he made it easy to be proud of our nation. And while I agree with most of your tidbits about Reagan, you forgot about some of his achievements. Yes, the government grew while we was president. The budget for the military grew the most, as I recall. Again, it was necessary. A wall fell down because of it. But more importantly, he restored the Americans faith in the military and its ability to carry out the will of our leaders. As to Cali, you should have seen what happened to it after he left! Lowered the value of a dollar? Yeh it did, but then inflation was already in high-gear when he took office. Only it was coupled with double digit unemployment and interest rates……….. all in all, I’d take that over what we had. And from my experience, America was better. Better than it had been for quite some time.
Anyway, to each there own, I thought it only right to give R.R. some equal time.
He did make America feel better, that’s true. I remember that time very well. But the feeling went beyond what was real. It was a bubble. And the bubble kept growing. It lead to the DotCom bubble, The Real Estate bubble, and the Wall Street bubble. People had a fantasy, created during the Reagan years, that they should have it all and debt was a viable way to it. There was no grounding in the reality of how debt weakens a nation. But we see the reality now. And America will be suffering from it for possibly 10 more years. It will be worse in years to come. There are projected to be 1 million more house foreclosures this year. And soon the commercial paper foreclosures will start. To compile the situation is the rapid printing of money that will make hyperinflation.
I’m a certainly not blaming Reagan for all of this. He was simply what America wanted to hear. America loves a good actor.
Also, to say he inherited problems is the same excuse Obama is using.
“Amino Acids in Meteorites” is among the disgruntled libertarians — neither noticing nor crediting him how much Reagan swam upstream against the “progressive” tide.
As for Palin, I love how much Leftists imagine they know. Like how superior Obama was to Palin in relevant experience, record, and achievement. It just never gets old!
libertarian?
I don’t fit in that pigeonhole.
Reagan swam upstream….
Like when he granted amnesty to 5 million illegal immigrants?
So now we have a immigration problem that went off the chart years ago. What would Reagan do? Probably give them amnesty. So people better inform Hannity, who keeps saying “What would Reagan do?”, that Reagan would solve the immigration problem not through deportation or prosecution of businesses that hire illegals but through amnesty. Though I’m sure all the people who say “What would Reagan do?”, and have the acronym bumper sticker WWRD, are in denial that Reagan kicked off the serious immigration problem America now has.
No space on Rushmore for him.
The comment about Reagan was made in jest. I don’t believe the US is an evil empire.
Reagan did have this pollyannish notion that we can have it all, spend like crazy on the military and still cut taxes, mostly for the very wealthy. For awhile it worked and after him, few politicians could survive if they threatened to either raise taxes or cut entitlement programs to any meaningful extent.
The result? $15 trillion in debt with no end in sight. If and when the train wreck comes, Reagan will be as responsible as anyone. Before we put him on Mt. Rushmore, should see how this all plays out.
Entitlements and military spending are not the same. Its silly to blame Reagan for the welfare state this nation is heading towards. This nation or any nation in a similar position won’t be a nation very long if its military is allowed to erode. And, the military was in a horrible state of erosion when Reagan found it. The military spending was required. That his successors couldn’t find a entitlement program they could just say no to, that’s his fault? Remember the “peace dividend” that never happened? Its also worth remembering too, Reagan had to deal with a decidedly left congress for most of his presidency.
But the Soviet Union still existed. The bear was only wounded. Now it is up and is likely angry. Moscow is still a superpower.
Perhaps, but again, the lack of follow-through by his successors can hardly be laid at his feet. Personally, I was shocked by the lack of a plan for what happens after the soviet fall. It was surreal, as if no one ever anticipated the event. And I think we lost a great opportunity. OTOH, they are much less overtly antagonistic than they used to be.
Maybe the whole thing was ill conceived.
OTOH, maybe there was no more we could do. It’s easy to armchair quarterback 25 years later.
True that.
I agree Andy that American mindset of using debt for making their life better became mainstream with Reagan’s approach. Look at the deep trouble America is now in. But really, Reagan isn’t to blame. People made the choice themselves.
Andy Weiss says:
February 6, 2011 at 2:03 am
this pollyannish notion that we can have it all
America is going through the withdrawals of that foolish belief now.
New Sarah article:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/05/usa-palin-idUSN0510429720110205
No president (even Obama) is responsible for all the things in their budget. Obama can say he is stuck with the Iraq war. Reagan contended with the gongressional budgets of that era.
We will not slay the dragon until 3/4 of all elected officials are conservative.
The only time we had a balanced budget in recent years was under a Democrat (Clinton). You had a Republican Congress and Republican President between 2001 and 2007 and the National Debt soared, then we had the crash of 2008.
During the 28 years from 1981 t0 2009, we had Republican presidents 20 of those years. There is no reason to believe that conservatives (Republicans) are any more capable of fiscal responsibility than liberals.
Don’t get me wrong, Reagen did some great things, got us out of a dreadful recession, improved the Nation’s spirit at the time it was flagging and certainly facilitated the fall of communism, even if he did not cause it. But his economic philosophy (if you simply cut taxes and deregulate, everything will be wonderful) was a bit simplistic and potentially destructive in the long haul.
Congress controls the budget. Newt Gingrich and the dotcom boom created “Clinton’s” balanced budget.
Steve,
You are correct in what you say with respect to Clinton and the timing of the dot com boom. Clinton was fortunate in many ways.
But we did have Republican congresses from 1995 to 2007 and also had 20 out of 28 years with Republican presidents between 1981 and 2009. They could have had their way with budgets much of the time.
For 6 years under Bush II the Republicans controlled both branches. The deficits exploded, then massive amounts had to be spent under Bush in 2008 to bail us out of a total collapse.
My take is that the Republican stamp is on the debt/bad economy at least as much as the Democrats. And it was Reagan that started the notion that we can borrow and spend our way to properity with no sacrafices over the long haul.