When will Beck attack Reagan's "suicidal" fiscal policies?

Spoiler alert: He won't. This type of selective examples relies on an audience that's.. well... that's willing to watch Glenn Beck, to put it nicely. Even if you DID put the facts in front of them, there's a good chance they won't care.

There are huge gaps in Beck's knwowledge and education...just like the huge gap between his ears.

See, the problem with Beck, and the like, is that these folks seem to forget that HISTORY actually happened, and, better yet, people can find this all out on their own with one small use out of teh Google. But, Beck and his minions depend on people NOT doing their own research, and actually NOT finding out the facts, or:

IOKIYAR!!!

What, then, are we to make of the budgets of fiscal conservative idol Ronald Reagan? See, federal spending during the Reagan administration never fell below 20 percent of GDP and peaked at 23.5 percent in 1983.

What to make of it? At the end of the Reagan administration the US economy sustained the longest peacetime expansion in history. Higher growth and lower inflation that plagued the economy between '73-'80.

mmfA likes to trot out the percentage of GDP numbers but I have to ask. How many of the proposed changes were passed by a democrat controlled congress? What were the realized effects after eight years? Reagan delivered all four of his proposed economic policy objectives. Just not to the extent that we had hoped. That fact is undeniable and is always overlooked by hacks trying to score political points.

The GOP/Right has encouraged the lowering of taxes, the conglomeration of industry, the exporting of jobs overseas, the deregulation of industry, and the accumulation of greater money in fewer hands. Now, as in 1929, less people own more of America! In the midst of this incredible increase in executive compensation, Ronald Reagan’s administration lowered the highest tax brackets by more than 60% from 71% to 28% in 1986, while raising the bottom tax rate from 11 to 15%. In reality the Reagan Administration created two tax brackets. The poorest earners paid up to 15% and multi-millionaires paid a little more than double? Did this increase revenue to the Treasury? No! No wonder we experienced record deficits. Did it increase wealth to the wealthiest? Yes! Recent articles have debunked the “urban myth” promulgated by the flat-taxer’s and other anti-tax groups that tax cuts increase revenues. In fact, tax cuts without expense reductions create greater deficits. With that in mind, the Reagan years offered some of the biggest deficits, (tripling the National Debt), continued high unemployment, averaging over 7% in his tenure, and great private sector increases in wealth.

On the March 17, 2006, broadcast of the PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, New York Times columnist David Brooks falsely claimed that "in the Reagan years, unemployment went from 13 percent to 5 percent."

In fact, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 1981, Ronald Reagan's first year in office, the U.S. average unemployment rate stood at 7.6 percent. During Reagan's presidency, it reached a high of 9.7 percent, and had declined to a level of 5.5 percent when Reagan left office. The rate from when Reagan entered office through his last year declined by 2.1 points, far less than the eight-point drop for which Brooks credited Reagan. (Besides that obvious reality in November of 1981, ten months into the Reagan Administration, unemployment had risen to 8.5% and continued to rise to almost 10% through February of 1983.)

The Reagan Years featured the highest deficits in peacetime, very high interest rates, recessions and an average of almost 8% unemployment for his eight years. His largess spilled over into the Bush I years causing more deficits, his pledge, "no new taxes," his reversal, and the worst beating an incumbent suffered in 150 years.

Along with Reagan’s tax cuts for the rich, we experienced the Stock Market crash of 1987, the Savings & Loan debacle and bailout for almost one trillion dollars, and the deregulation of broadcasting, which has led to the consolidation of ownership regarding thousands of previously independent stations.

What we have seen in this country has been an explosion in private wealth and a crying need for public revenues. This drought in public revenues has resulted in an aging infrastructure, which includes; poor and deteriorating bridges and roads, an antiquated electric grid system, weak, porous and inadequate levee systems, un-dredged harbors and rivers, a deteriorating reservoir system and over-crowded dangerous airports. In the Clinton Years, taxes on the wealthiest bracket went up to 39.6%, three extra brackets were created, there were tax cuts for the middle class, surpluses ensued, and over 20 million jobs were created. A benefit of that expansion of the work force, especially in the center cities, resulted in a dramatic lowering of crime in the period from 1993 through 2000. (Another urban myth was that Rudy Giuliani’s police tactics alone lowered crime in NYC. What is conveniently forgotten was that crime dropped dramatically in urban centers throughout America without Giuliani’s help!)

Richard J. Garfunkel
Host of The Advocates
wvox 1460 am radio
www.wvox.com