Ronald Reagan: Guilty of Socialism, Class Warfare
The concept of irony is way beyond the grasp of most teabaggers. But for the rest of the population — i.e. people whose IQs are HIGHER than their shoe sizes — this is just too much.
Ronald Reagan — God of the Far Right, Guiding Light of the Teatards — raised corporate taxes and closed corporate tax loopholes. These two actions together (part of the 1986 Tax Reform Act) brought in an additional $420 billion over the next five years.
When President Reagan learned that General Electric was slithering out of paying any taxes whatsoever, he said to his Treasury Secretary, “I didn’t realize things had gotten that far out of line.”
During the signing ceremony for his 1986 Tax Reform Act, Reagan said:
“We’re going to make it economical to raise children again. Flatter rates will mean more reward for that extra effort, and vanishing loopholes and a minimum tax will mean that everybody and every corporation pay their fair share.”
Commie! If the teawipes found out their swashbuckling hero was actually a wealth-redistributing socialist, they’d have a mass heart attack. Hmmm…come to think of it — spread the word!
With today being Tax Day and all that, MoveOn.org is organizing 300 Tax Day: Make Them Pay events across the country. It’s gotta be done.
Labels: 1986 Tax Reform Act, MoveOn.org, Ronald Reagan corporate tax loopholes, Tax Day Make Them Pay
posted by Tom Harper @ 1:13 PM
9 Comments:
Today, RR would be drummed out of the republican party as a tax and spend liberal.
But... gasp... sputter... Reagan hated liberals! So he must be... GOD!! LOL!
Yes, if he didn't hate liberals, he sure didn't like them very much. But!
If he was alive and coherent today, I suspect he would give Paul Ryan the tongue-lashing of his life. I don't think he would have very many kind words for the Tea Party. I believe he would admire their basic principles, but he would laugh at them trying to turn those principles into a new kind of American Way.
Ronald Reagan was far smarter than any of today's Tea Partiers. He knew how to reach across the aisle just enough to get what he wanted. He listened to those with whom he disagreed, and he would even engage in some compromise once in a while. His sense of fairness went beyond his political ideology now and then. He knew how to get someone to do something he wanted, and to make them think it was their idea, not his.
Like him or loathe him (and I mostly fall into the latter camp because of his politics), the guy was a real leader.
Heaven forbid we should ever be "led" by somebody like Tronald Dump, Newt Gingrinch, Sarah Bailin', the Huckster, etc.
Even if Reagan did subscribe to some pretty screwed-up ideology, if it came down to a choice between Reagan and ANY of the people running for office from the right wing nowadays, I would take Reagan in a heartbeat. Sadly, but I would do it. So far all those others, by comparison, come across as naive riff-raff.
The greatest thing about Saint Ronnie is that he's like religion; he's whatever the preacher wants him to be.
Don't expect any Jonestowners to buy any truths about their Saint. They have their dogmas, and they're sticking to 'em.
The only dogmas I respect are the ones with puppies.
Well Folks.
I have a different memory of that era. What actually happened is that his treasury security asked him did he (Reagan) know that the largest 100 corporations paid less taxes total then his (admin) secretary, then Reagan’s mouth dropped open and he said we had to do something about it.
Of course liberals and Democrats have warning Reagan and the Republicans of that for years why did he decide now to listen?
Those “Tax Reforms” in retrospect really didn’t get at whom they were targeted at but they did gouge the middle class but cutting such tax breaks I used to enjoy such as:
Sales Tax deduction ( you could deduct your sales taxes)
State Tax deduction (before that you could deduct your state taxes from your federal taxes)
He also increased the Social Security Tax and made unemployment taxes taxable.
I noticed only one person in the article comments picked up on it.
Whatever he did get out of the Corporations (studies show it was very little which explains why they didn’t sick their lobbyist on Congress). He still ran up the now 2nd largest deficient of our time. Wanna know who beat his record and with no asterisk next to his name?
Erik
Jerry: I think a lot of "moderate" Democrats are more conservative than Reagan was. The "center" keeps shifting to the right.
Snave: I didn't like Reagan at the time, but he looks downright liberal compared to today's GOP. He certainly wouldn't have anything good to say about Paul Ryan and his fellow teajobs.
JR: Reagan is sort of like Jesus in that way. His worshipers don't dare say anything negative about him, even though most of their words and actions have nothing to do with anything he ever said.
Jerry: And don't forget the bumper sticker, "Sorry my karma ran over your dogma."
Erik: I remember that, when Reagan started taxing unemployment benefits. It seemed like blasphemy at the time (which it was), but today's teabaggers are so much worse.
Good point, Tom. But if you think this little-known fact would give tea baggers terminal heartburn, you should hear the 1948 political commercial Thom Hartmann has played on his radio show a couple of times. In it, none other than Reagan goes on for about 90 seconds talking about President Truman and Democrats in Congress fighting to make things fairer and better for working people, supporting strong unions and minimum-wage laws, more and better housing, including public housing, better schools, college opportunities, and on and on.
Reagan was for liberal Democratic policies and programs before he was against them — a fact that was long gone down the public memory hole by the time he ran for president as a Republican for the second time.
SW: Nah, I didn't really think teabaggers would have any sort of drastic reaction over finding out about Reagan's earlier quotes. I haven't heard the 1948 commercial featuring Reagan, but it makes perfect sense. The 1956 Republican Party platform was so liberal (compared to today's politics), most centrist Democrats wouldn't be caught dead with it.
And you're right that by the time Reagan was governor of California (let alone running for president), most conservatives were unaware (or repressing the fact) that Reagan was once a lot more liberal.
Tom/SW
Like many of today’s (older) conservatives Reagan was a former New Dealer whom after he took advantage of the programs, then turned against them and declared them evil. That’s one of the traits I hate the most about conservatives, especially Black Conservatives, who willingly and knowingly enter an Affirmative Action program “kicking and screaming” and “gritting their teeth” (I mean you could have always turned it down) then denounce it as soon as they are finished and are well settled in their portfolio and party position.
Old time Californians who knew Reagan as far back as the Screen Actors Guild days tell me he was never a Liberal, just a mere opportunist.
Erik
Getting to be an Old Time Californian
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