The Myth Of Reagan Overshadows The Truth About Reagan

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The Myth of Ronald Reagan is touted by conservatives and neoconservatives as the unvarnished truth. The Myth tells of the fiscally responsible Reagan, the Reagan who decreased the size of government, the Reagan who gave average Americans the unrivaled prosperity of “trickle down”, and all of the other BS cited regularly by conservatives and neoconservatives as fact.

The presidential hopefuls participating in the GOP's Clown Show of 2016 want voters to believe they are Reagan Republicans worthy of carrying on the legacy. But which legacy, the truth or the Myth?

Like most conservatives and neoconservatives the 2016 GOP hopefuls forget (or ignore) the giant leap to the right the Republican Party made since the days their hero walked the political stage.

Each of the 2016 Republican Clowns must prove their devotion to extreme conservatism with a vow to never compromise. Their hero Reagan, however, was not the ideologue the of Myth. As stated by Reagan's former chief of staff, James Baker, “If Reagan told me once, he told me fifteen thousand times—I’d rather get 80 percent of what I want than go over the cliff with my flags flying.” GOP hopefuls today do NOT feel as Reagan when it comes to compromise. In fact, they would never see a dime in political contributions if they did.

A few other facts believers in the Reagan Myth forget (or ignore):

In 1986, Reagan signed the Simpson-Mazzoli Act, providing a pathway to citizenship for 2.7 million undocumented immigrants. All the current GOP hopefuls oppose such policies.

Reagan stood up to the National Rifle Association, or NRA, to establish background checks. He strongly supported the establishment of national background checks for gun purchases, as well as a ban on assault weapons. Would any of the 2016 GOP hopefuls dare stand up to the NRA? No way.

In 1987, Reagan signed the Montreal Protocol, a multilateral international treaty to reduce pollution. In the face of scientific research showing that chemical gasses were depleting the protective ozone layer, Reagan signed the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty that phased out nearly 100 of these dangerous gases, many of which are also greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Current GOP candidates either deny that climate change is real or ignore the science behind it and have strenuously opposed the Obama administration’s effort to regulate pollution.

Reagan negotiated with the Soviet Union to reduce nuclear proliferation. Today, Republicans as a whole rejected the Iran Nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration even before any details were released.

Reagan grew the federal government through deficit spending. Despite his public image as the champion of small government, Reagan tripled the national debt, increased the federal workforce by about 324,000 workers, doubled the U.S. Department of Education’s budget, and created a new federal agency, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Current GOP candidates have embraced uncompromising positions on the federal budget, opposing any deficit spending, even in the face of pressing national need. Sen. Cruz demonstrated astounding fiscal irresponsibility, costing the economy $20 billion by orchestrating the government shutdown in 2013.

Reagan closed tax loopholes favoring the wealthy and raised taxes to reduce the federal deficit. In fact, he raised taxes 7 out of his 8 years in office and has said that tax loopholes “sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying ten percent of his salary, and that’s crazy.”

While today's Republicans claim to love their hero Reagan, they use the Reagan Myth to make many of the old coot's policies appear to be much further to the right than they truly were.

The conservatives' and neoconservatives' famous denial of facts will force them to dispute everything written in this OP, but some simple research proves it all to be true.

It would be too much to ask right-wingers to do such research to learn the truth, and since it is fact, these facts are not welcome in the right wing's alternate reality. This will be seen in their responses in this thread, just as it is in most others.


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2009 to 2015 less than 2% mean GDP growth.



1981 to 1987 4% mean GDP growth.

One economic plan worked, one plan failed.....which one worked?

 

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It is surprising that there is but one attempt by a Reagan worshiper to refute the OP.

The single response uses statistics that do nothing but show the profits of the fat cats. This is not a defense, but more proof that Reaganomics prevents wages from keeping pace with inflation to help line the pockets of the super rich at the expense of all others.

Can any right-winger tell the truth about Reagan? Or are you just too unwilling to face the facts and stop believing in the Reagan Myth? He's been out of office for nearly thirty years, his policies, and those built upon the fallacy of his "supply side" nonsense, have crashed the economy repeatedly and have all but destroyed the middle class.

How much longer will it be before you conservatives and neoconservatives realize you've been taken for a ride for the past four decades?

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The GOP Clowns that participated in the debates on CNN all trusted the Myth of Reagan over the truth of Reagan. They certainly knew their audience, didn't they?

Those debating were either ignoring the truth or ignorant of the truth, which made their antics even more entertaining. Conservatives and neoconservatives undoubtedly sat spellbound as the BS flowed, while voters wanting to hear truth must have busted a gut.

http://www.usnews.com/news/politics...op-candidates-try-to-tie-themselves-to-reagan


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If Obama was allowed to be a Keynesian like Reagan... the results would have been just as good. Unfortunately Congressional Republicans won't spend money when a Democrat is President.

 

If Obama agreed to attack Iran, the Congressional Republicans would spend trillions on another needless war. Of course, they would first need to oppose the idea, but eventually, they would serve the war profiteers as their conservative duty demands.

 

Very true. But spending a trillion dollars on Americans, education, and infrastructure would bankrupt us. It's so disgusting how anyone can believe Republicans these days. If we can afford $2 trillion to build a democracy in Iraq or the trillions of dollars it would take to bomb Iran, we can afford to fix our own country. It's literally insane.

 

[video=youtube;jiGsHCpBGg4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiGsHCpBGg4[/video]

I'll let him respond to you himself.

 

Reagan is to the right, what Obama will be to the left--more symbolic than substantive. How the GOP expects to win the support of voters under 40 bowing to the alter of such a dated historical figure is beyond me. They might as well be praising Teddy Roosevelt charging up San Juan Hill.

 

Reagan was no hero, and anyone that thinks he is ignores the facts. Yes he did some decent things, but he was a big spender. I'm sick of out of control spending now, so he doesn't get a free pass for that even though I like him a hell of a lot more than Bush or Obama.

Was he a good president? He was better than Carter, but that doesn't say much.

I am not siding with liberals or anything, but an independent thinker or free mind would question why Republicans have this love affair with the guy. He spent like a Democrat for crying out loud.

 

He only spent like that because the democrat congress wouldn't make a deal with him unless he did

 

After so many decades, you're still letting the old coot take you for a ride. But that is expected. What next, defense of his "trickle down" snake oil?

 

Yeah,The GOP's love affair with Reagon is mind boggling,everthing they praise him for is everything they are against now,but boy, oh boy, just listen to how they hypocritically defend him thinking no-one will notice.

 

$1.2 trillion stimulus with interest wasn't enough.

US debt by year

09/30/1981 * $997,855,000,000.00
09/29/1989 * $2,857,430,960,187.32

Total Increase 8 years - $1,859,575,960,187 increase in debt.

09/30/2009 $11,909,829,003,511.75
09/18/2015 $18,154,433,841,439.72

Total Increase 6 years - $6,244,604,837,927.97 increase in debt.

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo5.htm

That money went somewhere.

 

Reagan never once submitted a balanced budget. The claim that it was the Democrats in Congress that made him spend all if that taxpayer money is part of the Reagan myth. Completely untrue.

 

Another pathetic attempt to smear Reagan that pulled us out the black hole Carter put us in. Carter gave us double digit inflation, unemployment, and interest rates. Further Reagan set up the fantastic growth that lasted for approx 20 years. What is funny that it ended up with such a spurt that Clinton and his ass kisser claimed he did it.

We can also talk about the fact that Reagan drove the USSR into the ground trying to keep up.

Liberals cant stand the fact that in the last 60 years or more they have NO ONE that even come close to Reagan. Whats worse is the fact they have the two worst presidents ever, Carter and Obama.

 

Reagan set us up for the biggest crash since the Great Depression.

 

OK, so all you report about Reagan is true. He was also a republican because after being a democrat he changed because he realized the party of the truth and the party of capitalism and the party of patriotism was not the democrats. That is why he was reelected and why he was so popular with republicans.

 

Which policies of carter had these effects?

 

You need to take constant dollars into account when comparing. Also, the measure of fiscal responsibility is increase/decrease in the deficit and not the debt.

It is easy to spend "more money".... increase the deficit. It is not so easy to cut or reign in spending ... reduce the deficit.

Reagan increased the deficit like a princess with a credit card. Bush was handed a nearly balance budget and by the end of his term the deficit was 1.4 Trillion.

2009 Budget proposed by Bush was for 3.1 Trillion in spending on estimated income of 2.7. 400 Billion was the projected deficit.
Due to the crash, revenue dropped to 2.1 Trillion. (600 Billion dollar shortfall)
TARP and other economic stimulus accounted for another 400 Billion.


Where did this money go ? In 2000 Total Military Spending was roughly 350 Billion/yr. By the end of Bush's term it had risen to over 900 Billion/yr.
Under Obama this number is over 1 Trillion/yr

If military spending would have been maintained (allowing for increase at the rate of inflation) This would have freed up on average 550 Billion/year for 14 years = 8 Trillion dollars. This money could have been spent on technology, infrastructure, education and getting our economy geared up to compete in the 3rd millennium.

Instead this money was wasted on completely unnecessary war and obsolete hardware (padding the pockets of the Defense oligopoly) and big government bureaucracy.

Where did the money go ? The military head of the Oligopoly-Bureaucracy Fusion monster ate most of it. One of a number of heads of this monster that runs this country.

 

Reagan defeated the USSR WITHOUT going to actual war and getting people killed.

 

Actually, Reagan's policy of providing support and weapons to anti-communist rebels in various parts of Africa, South America, Asia and the Middle East got a lot of people killed.

 

pesky facts like that are something the reaganut worshippers cover their ears on.lol

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you did an outstanding job there of taking the reaganut apologists to school.

 

No American service people.

 

So killing people is fine as long as they're not American service people. You support the cowardly policy of using money to manipulate others into fighting our battles for us and not going to "actual war". That's disgusting.