Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Reagan’s record on raising taxes began almost the moment he entered politics. Elected governor of California in 1966, he inherited a large budget deficit from his predecessor, Pat Brown. Although a conservative, dedicated to shrinking government, Reagan nevertheless found the magnitude of spending cuts that would have been necessary in 1967 to be beyond reach. This led him to endorse a $1 billion per year tax increase, equivalent to a $17 billion tax increase today – an enormous sum equal to a third of state revenues at that time. Journalist Lou Cannon recounts the circumstances:
“No amount of budget reductions, even if they had been politically palatable, could have balanced California’s budget in 1967. The cornerstone of Governor Reagan’s economic program was not the ballyhooed budget reductions but a sweeping tax package four times larger than the previous record California tax increase obtained by Governor Brown in 1959. Reagan’s proposal had the distinction of being the largest tax hike ever proposed by any governor in the history of the United States.”[1]
Quote:
Almost immediately upon enactment of the 1981 tax cut, Reagan came under enormous pressure to do something about the federal budget deficit. While his preferred approach was to cut spending as much as necessary, it was not politically possible to so. His aides began pressuring him to support a tax increase. Conservative activists were appalled that Reagan would even consider such a thing, but he eventually endorsed the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982. According to a Treasury Department analysis, it raised taxes by close to one percent of GDP, equivalent to $150 billion per year today, and was probably the largest peacetime tax increase in American history.[11]
This was just the first of many tax increases that President Reagan endorsed and signed into law. There were 11 major tax increases during his administration. And this doesn’t count the fact that Reagan intentionally delayed the start of tax indexing, which was part of the 1981 tax bill, until 1985 so as to capture a lot of anticipated bracket-creep for the Treasury. In fact, it was the failure of inflation to come in as fast as White House economists expected that created much of the deficit problem. I estimate that lower than expected inflation and the loss of bracket creep was responsible for about half the budget deficit in 1981 and 1982.[12] It’s also worth noting that the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which was revenue-neutral in the long run, was a fairly substantial revenue-raiser its first year, increasing taxes by $18.6 billion or 0.41 percent of GDP.[13]
Remember Dick Cheney told them that
deficits don't matter he was one of their own and as long as he was in office with the stated goal of keeping America a White Christian nation where corpiorations and the weathy reigned supreme they were perfectly O.K. with that.
What this whole debt ceiling situation has proven to most objective intelligent Americans is the Republican Party has become so hung up on ideology they have divorced themselves from sensible responsible government policy.
They are much more loyal to Grover Norquist and their corporate contributors than they are to the American people or the economic security of the United States.
Last edited by JazzyTallGuy; 07-27-2011 at 05:49 PM..
The game being played is by your boys, everyone knows that one Party is willing to deal and the other (YOURS) is not, guess who will get the blame
Casper
So sad that your fuhrer and his 49.665% of the government can't pass anything against those evil 16.665% of republicans.
Your guy, and team, must suck a big fat one...
It must take a genius to follow Obama who is leading you from behind without any plan?!?!
It is purely reprehensable that the Democrats intentionally destroy wealth of every American who invests, has a retirement account, a pension, etc... . All this is done to enable Obama to spend us another nearly $3Trillion further into debt before the next election. Shameful!
So sad that your fuhrer and his 49.665% of the government can't pass anything against those evil 16.665% of republicans.
Your guy, and team, must suck a big fat one...
It must take a genius to follow Obama who is leading you from behind without any plan?!?!
Yeah, you guys do have a plan and Democrats who have more than one idea do have a tendency to squabble between themselves as to what is right. Your plan is the "Two Santa Claus Theory" and Norquist's vision of drowning government in a bathtub. You are all Fox cookie cutter thinkers. You don't question, you march in lock step, you spew the same talking points, and I think there are a few historical lessons that we were suppose to have been learned from when people follow blindly without questioning.
Do you have any idea... at all... which countries are doing well and which ones aren't? I think it is hysterical that when the Germans moved away from hate speech and turned to taking care of their people and country, quess who has a strong economy?
Do you think we should learn something from this? Or I suppose you believe in crash and burn the economy... I guess that will teach us.
The crash of 2008 happened during the GOP's watch - a GOP president who would not veto a spending bill, and now we have another GOP fiasco - holding corporate special interests over the good of the American people. GOP leaders have gone on record that the default is much to do about nothing - showing they don't care about what the average American pays. Now some on Wall Street are calling for a freeze on the market to prevent it from falling too fast. If there is another crash it will be the GOP's fault.
Ok.. I think it is interesting you send me to "a this time is different" and a study that encompasses the 17th century to now as if I wouldn't agree that they always say this is different, yet similarities obviously exist. Nonetheless, I ask you are you a monetarist? What do you think of the book "All the Devils are Here"? What do you think of Kindleberg as quoted in your link? Have you read Inflated which Kindleberg is probably going to incorporate in his updated version of Manias, Panics and Crashes (excellent book IMO)?
I guess I don't get your point sending me there. What is it you are trying to teach me? I suggest each time is different in terms of the tools, yet it still has the underlying theme that we keep inflicting the same torture on ourselves and never seem to learn there is more to life allowing people to take advantage of the naive.
The crash of 2008 happened during the GOP's watch - a GOP president who would not veto a spending bill, and now we have another GOP fiasco - holding corporate special interests over the good of the American people. GOP leaders have gone on record that the default is much to do about nothing - showing they don't care about what the average American pays. Now some on Wall Street are calling for a freeze on the market to prevent it from falling too fast. If there is another crash it will be the GOP's fault.
Shoot, I forgot the dems still have control of the country but it is not their watch anymore????
What happened to the constant post that Obama was getting all the credit for the markets rising?
Now it is tanking it is not his no longer?
Battered and confused libs just cannot make up their minds.
It will be all over soon when the loons lose the WH and Senate.
Things are MUCH WORSE now, today then any other time since the great depression. All on the demwits watch with a moron running things in the WH.
So sad that your fuhrer and his 49.665% of the government can't pass anything against those evil 16.665% of republicans.
Your guy, and team, must suck a big fat one...
It must take a genius to follow Obama who is leading you from behind without any plan?!?!
So this is like some kind of game with teams? And the object is that the winner gets to do an end zone dance and throw the ball in the face of the loser? And then everyone goes out for a beer and the loser smiles and says I'll get you next game?
With thinking like that, no wonder we are in this situation.
This is some serious stuff way beyond the "All I want is for my team to kick your team's posterior".
Last edited by JRR; 07-27-2011 at 07:21 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
