Choice Words About Ronald Reagan

[discocrisco01]

Field Negro has choice words about Reagan

"
Ronald Reagan tripled the national debt.


By cutting taxes for the wealthy he left the government with less money. We were 900 billion in debt when he came into office and 2.8 trillion in debt when he left. Do the math.


The Iran/Contra affair. If wingnuts believe that Benghazi(drink drink, gulp) is a scandal,they should read up on Iran/Contra a little bit sometime. Now that, my friends, was a scandal.


Under Ronald Reagan unemployment went from 7.5% to 11%. It eventually started falling again with the help of low paying jobs. This happened in part because large American companies started shipping jobs oversees and cutting out the American worker.


Ronald Reagan ignored the AIDS crisis, and, one could argue, contributed to the devastating crack epidemic that engulfed inner city America in the eighties. Sadly, it is a scourge that is still ravaging some African- American families today.


Ronald Reagan did more to destroy unions and the American middle class than any other President in history. (Google Reagan PATCO for an example.)


Ronald Reagan raided the Social Security Trust Fund and raised the social security tax on the middle class to fund his scheme.


Finally, Ronald Reagan and his government funded the Taliban and Afghan freedom fighters so that they could fight the "evil" Soviets.


What did we get for it? We got a tall cave dwelling dude with a beard who brought terror to the shores of the United States on September 11, 2001.


The next time you hear conservatives showering hero worship on Saint Ronald of Reagan; send them a link to this post. It won't change their minds about their conservative god, but you will feel better knowing that you have done your part to make your neighbors smarter.

Thom Hartmann has stated repeatedly that the decline of this nation started with Ronald Reagan. Yet, the conservative worships this guy and every street, airport, or building gets name after this guy if these guys get their way.

Yes, Reagan was far better than George W. Bush was, but he is the one who started all of the deregulation and race to the bottom that the current Republican feeds off today.

[Jamaal510]

1. Fuck that race-baiting,

anti-poor, fear-mongering Ronald Reagan. That is all.

[yeoman6987]

3. We were 900 billion in debt when he came into office and 2.8 trillion in debt when he left.

2.8 trillion. We are 17 trillion now. Just 4 presidents later. We need to stop this or we will be up to 50 trillion in no time.

[aggiesal]

12. Bring the tax levels . . .

to pre-Reagan years and watch the deficit shrink.

The transfer of wealth and the lack of tax dollars since 1980 is
the reason for our current debt.

[brush]

2. Thanks for the post. I only disagree with one thing.

I won't go so far as to say he was far better than W. I'd say they were about even, especially in Reagan's last years when he was losing lucidity and Nancy had to prompt him repeatedly as to what to say during public appearances (there are tapes of of her having to do this).

[cpwm17]

4. I despised Ronald Reagan then

and I despise him even more now.

[deutsey]

7. +1

[russspeakeasy]

5. Thanks for posting this.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. I consider Reagan the worst president in US history by far...

the specifics of his perfidy are out there, but he did something horrific no one else ever did-- he made it acceptable public policy to despise the US government.

He convinced us that the government, which he headed, was useless, corrupt, and in the way. Sure, parts of it are, but not all, and rather than fix anything that needed fixing, he made the choice to tear it all down acceptable.

No, they couldn't tear it all down, of course, but they crippled it to where it might be beyond repair, and his acolytes are out there taking whatever digs they can out of it.

[DLnyc]

8. I would word that comment slightly differently:

Instead of

. . . the decline of this nation started with Ronald Reagan. Yet, the conservative worships this guy . . .

I would put:

. . . the decline of this nation started with Ronald Reagan. This is why the conservative worships this guy . . .

They love him because he fucked the little guy and gave the store to the big players!

[Marie Marie]

9. Well said DLnyc.

He brought out the worst in many Americans by appealing to that lowest common denominator.

[Skittles]

10. Reagan made greed and idiocy fashonable

yes indeed

[Mr.Bill]

11. If, by his own definition,

government was the problem, what does that make him for wanting to lead it?

[Gary 50]

13. Reagan National Airport...

How's that for in your face. That horrible creep with the folksy avuncular personality screwed the country with a smile on his face and made the majority enjoy the screwing and thank him for it.. Reagan Democrats. The words made me want to puke. If the cons had their way we would be living in the United States of Reagan.

[merrily]

17. Republicans, still stinging from Nixon's resignation, wanted an equivalent of JFK.

Therefore, they blew Reagan up into Saint Ronnie. For their part, Democrats not only did little to contradict them, but, in 2008, both Hillary and Obama put Ronnie on their respective lists of top ten US Presidents ever--and Hillary had only 9 open slots! Moreover, Obama continued to praise him, as do many Democrats.

[joanbarnes]

14. Many more. FCC rule changes leading to Hate Radio.

[merrily]

16. True, but FCC rules are only rules, not laws.

Subsequent administrations could have done something about FCC rules, but chose not to. Democrats in Congress criticized Reagan because of the Fairness Doctrine, yet acted against it themselves when they were in the majority and Obama was President.

In the 111th Congress (January 2009 to January 2011), the Broadcaster Freedom Act of 2009 (S.34, S.62, H.R.226) was introduced to block reinstatement of the Doctrine. On February 26, 2009, by a vote of 87-11, the Senate added that act as an amendment to the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009 (S.160),[41] [a bill which later passed the Senate 61-37, but not the House of Representatives].[42] The Associated Press reported that the vote on the Fairness Doctrine rider was:
“ In part a response to conservative radio talk show hosts who feared that Democrats would try to revive the policy to ensure liberal opinions got equal time. ”

The AP report went on to say that President Obama had no intention of reimposing the doctrine, but Republicans (led by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S. Carolina) wanted more in the way of a guarantee that the doctrine would not be reimposed.[43]

.......

Formal revocation

In June 2011, the Chairman and a subcommittee chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, both Republicans, said that the FCC, in response to their requests, had set a target date of August 2011 for removing the Fairness Doctrine and other "outdated" regulations from the FCC's rulebook.[48]

On August 22, 2011, the FCC formally voted to repeal the language that implemented the Fairness Doctrine, along with removal of more than eighty other rules and regulations, from the Federal Register following a White House executive order directing a "government-wide review of regulations already on the books", to eliminate unnecessary regulations.[1]

And, of course, Genachowski revised the net neutrality rules without fixing the flaw in the rules that made the federal court strike them down not long ago.

When I look at things from the perspective of the American people, rather than through the Republican prism or the Democratic prism, a different picture emerges than when I looked through only the Democratic prism.

[merrily]

15. No love for Reagan, but he did not start deregulation and he raised taxes 11 times.

Taxes

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/02/05/142288/reagan-centennial/#

And, of course, HW Bush famously raised them once.

So, maybe, by the time that Clinton got into office, those dozen increases--plus "ending welfare as we know it" were at least partly responsible for the "modest budget surplus" that existed when Clinton left office?


Deregulation

Nixon started deregulation, Ford followed Nixon's lead and Carter jumped in with both feet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deregulation

http://mises.org/daily/535

Which has made Carter, in hindsight, popular with some on the right.

http://articles.herald-mail.com/2011-02-20/opinion/28614285_1_jimmy-carter-deregulation-peanut-farmer

I can't find it quickly right now, but I once read an interview with Carter, done years after his Presidency ended, in which he said he was proud of the deregulation he had done, but referred to subsequent and catastrophic de-regulation by another President, whom Carter refused to name, though I suspect it was Clinton's repeal of Glass Steagall, which was a major contributor to global economic collapse of 2008.

I don't mind a good Reagan bash, but facts are facts.