In another forum I had a Reagan-lover tell me I was an idiot because I thought Reagan was one of the worst Presidents this country ever had (and never mind the fact that most on the right today would consider Reagan to be too liberal). I really dont mind being called an idiot, especially when its so easy to ruin their Reagan-worshipping with a few facts. Feel free to use any of the following if, in your travels, you run across anyone of the same mindset as that poor, deluded fellow. Many of the catastrophes that face America today can be traced to Ronald Reagan. The systemic challenges of America’s oil dependence, environmental issues, the arms race, and nuclear proliferation were all attempting to be addressed by Reagans immediate predecessors, Nixon, Ford, and Carter. Reagan ignored them all and promoted the idea that America was a shining city on a hill that was immune to the troubles and challenges facing it. When Reagan came into office the unemployment rate was 7.5% and dropping. By the end of 1982 the rate was 10.8% and remained higher than when he took office for 3 years. He also enabled and facilitated the shipping of American jobs overseas for cheaper labor under his so-called free trade policies. Policies that to this day hamper the growth in American jobs and the American middle class, and are finally being recognized for the harm they caused over 3 decades. Reagan pushed for deregulation of industries, including banking, which led to the collapse of the Savings & Loan industry. He also slashed income taxes for the wealthiest Americans in an experiment known as “supply side” economics, which promoted the myth that cutting tax rates for the rich would increase revenues and eliminate the federal deficit. The conservative myth that tax cuts somehow increase revenue was exposed as the government went deeper into debt. In addition, he went on an unprecedented and unneeded peace-time defense spending spree. This caused a tripling of the national debt. Reagan ended up having to raise taxes 11 times during his administration - but he was never able to get the deficit under control because of his flawed economic policies. Reagan raided the Social Security trust fund and wrote IOUs for the money that was taken. The money was needed to shore up the government because of lost revenues due to the tax cuts for the wealthy and his drastically increased defense spending, which was threatening an economic collapse. Reagan gave amnesty to 3 million illegal aliens and his administration removed all of the laws that would have cracked down on companies that knowingly hired illegal immigrants. Reagan supported some of the most brutal dictators, as long as he didnt consider them communists. This included Panamas Manuel Noriega (until he grew too close to Castro), Iraqs Saddam Hussein, Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and the brutal regime in El Salvador, even though it was widely known all were killing civilians - including Americans. Reagan supported the apartheid regime of South Africa by vetoing the Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, which was to provide sanctions against the white-ruled South African government to put pressure on them to end apartheid. Thankfully, Congress overruled his veto. In the 1980s Reagan funded the Islamist mujahidin in Afghanistan. Reagan also broke American laws against funding and arming terrorist groups under Iran-Contra. His administration also destroyed and hid huge amounts of documents in order to impede investigations into the scandal. If Carter or Clinton, or Obama did that you would be crying loudly for their immediate impeachment. Reagans administration had more documented corruption than ANY President in U.S. history - at least 138 Reagan administration officials, including several cabinet members, were investigated, indicted or convicted of crimes.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 05:19:24 +0000
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