Reagan


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Conservative Tax Tricks – Did Tax Cuts Grow The Economy?

By Dave Johnson
April 18, 2011

Conservative ideology says cutting taxes makes the economy grow. This Tax Day let's explore whether this is, in fact, the case. In the last few decades we as a country have conducted textbook scientific experiments with taxes. Under Reagan we dramatically cut taxes at the top, under Clinton we raised them a bit, and then under Bush we cut them again. So now we can look at what happened: Did cutting taxes make the economy grow?

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Did American Workers "Get What They Deserved?"

By Dave Johnson
March 31, 2011

What did people expect would happen when they voted for Reagan, Bush and other conservatives, or supported their policies? In the Holland (Michigan) Sentinel community columnist Ray Buursma writes, American workers got what they deserved. more »

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Remembering the Real Reagan

By Mark Sumner
From dailykos.com
February 8th, 2011

dailykos.com — That many people still buy into Reagan's ideas on economics is understandable, because the press then and now fails to point out the most important fact about Reagan’s contentions. They made it up. The Cadillac driving welfare queen, the ever-enriching Laffer Curve, the insistence that regulation was what troubled our markets and banks – they are phantasms. Deliberate mendacity, with no sounder theoretical basis than "that's what I want you to believe." The Great Snake Oil Salesman foisted on America a set of remedies that had all the scientific basis of the four humors and even less curative power than a good old fashioned bleeding. But now we take these things for granted, we start from the basis that aid to women and children needs to be reduced, that decreasing taxes stimulates the economy, and that deregulation is the cure, not the problem. We deliver the nation one round of poison after another, and feign shock when it fails to work.

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Third World America: Reagan Revolution Drags Us Down

By Dave Johnson
September 20, 2010

The recession ended in June, 2009? What? Seriously? No one told the millions of unemployed. more »

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Drill Baby Drill Judge Pits Mega-Corporations Against The Rest Of Us

By Dave Johnson
June 23, 2010

American deregulated corporatism: Short-term profits for a very few at the expense of the rest of us. The Gulf oil spill is driving home the "expense of the rest of us" part of this equation. And the corporatist/conservative reaction to government's efforts to reign in an industry that provides so much of their funding highlights for us the battle lines of the equation. more »

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Reagan Revolution Home To Roost -- In Charts

By Dave Johnson
June 15, 2010

It seems that you can look at a chart of almost anything and right around 1981 or soon after you'll see the chart make a sharp change in direction, and probably not in a good way. And I really do mean almost anything, from economics to trade to infrastructure to ... well almost anything. I spent some time looking for charts of things, and here are just a few examples. more »

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"Government Doesn’t Have the Resources to Stop It"

By Dave Johnson
May 27, 2010

People want the President to exert leadership to turn things around.

The oil leak. Unemployment. Credit card scams. Foreclosures. Predatory corporations. Environmental destruction. Global warming. Roads and bridges crumbling. Incomes stagnant. Schools getting worse. Companies moving overseas. Problem after problem. more »

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Reagan Revolution Home To Roost: America Drowning In Debt

By Dave Johnson
May 19, 2010

“Watch what we do, not what we say.” (Famous Republican advice.)

The Reagan Revolution was first and foremost about cutting the taxes paid by the rich and corporations. Now, almost 30 years later, the United States of America is drowning in debt. And that is exactly what they wanted to happen. more »

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Emulating Reagan Won't Cut It

By Steve Benen
From washingtonmonthly.com
March 6th, 2009

washingtonmonthly.com — Republicans keep saying that if the party could only convince voters that they're following Ronald Reagan's vision, the public would look more favorably on the modern GOP agenda. There's just one problem with that, according to a poll by, of all sources, Fox News.

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Reagan Hagiography

By Matt Stoller
From openleft.com
January 17th, 2008

openleft.com — Stoller gives a tip of the hat to Rick Perlstein and a hard smack at Ronald Reagan.

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