25 years later the headline is finally right
I hope Obama is more like Ronald Reagan than Jimmy Carter.
Why? Reagan was a good talker but was ineffective at changing the long term course of the country. Carter was a dope but managed to ruin foreign policy for us perhaps permanently.
I don’t like Ronald Reagan. I don’t idolize him. I think he was a good talker but ineffective. He compromised and set the nation on the path to ruin.
Reagan’s peak ineffectiveness came in 1986…
But Ken… he lowered tax rates. Well, sure, the rates might have been higher early in Reagan’s terms, but there were lots of deductions and loopholes. Only dopes paid the actual printed rate.
Then it all changed. 1986 came. A cruddy year. The Space Shuttle crashed and our income tax rates were cut along with most deductions/loopholes. Simplification.
He got rolled on this. They lowered the rates, and took away the deductions. But now they’ve raised the rates again, but where can you hide money now? My financial guys show me things that make my eyes bleed they are so complicated and expensive.
Federal spending, as a percentage of GDP and debt as a percentage of GDP, have all risen dramatically since Reagan and 1986.
Also in 1986, Senator Alan Simpson, recently resurrected to further screw the country on Obama’s “don’t’ cut the deficit” panel, sponsored a bill to let illegal’s become citizens. Reagan signed it and with the stroke of a pen gave California and its 56+ electoral votes to the Democrats.
He got rolled again! He’d already given government a path to more money. And then he ensured the people most likely to grow government would have the California Assembly and Governors office, as well as a much better shot at being President. We see the result now as we worry if California’s expected financial failure will ruin just it, just its region, or the entire country.
1913’s income tax set up the long term ruin of the country. Ronald Reagan’s terms weren’t a speed bump on the way to ruination – they were gas on a fire.
So the next time someone goes on about Reagan, tell them to shut the hell up, they don’t know what they are talking about. A cult of personality isn’t endearing even if nominally conservative.
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:59 pm
I dare say SOME good things came out of ’86….
Its fairly common for those presidents who talk a good game to falter in office. Thomas Jefferson leads that pack.
Name a better president in my lifetime than Ronald Regan? He had many flaws, but compared to the chumps we keep electing, I would still take him.
March 3rd, 2010 at 5:01 pm
I suppose I’d take him if I had to. I just don’t think that being better than a chump merits idolization.
My main problem with him is he had the right idea, but he fell prey to the system.
March 3rd, 2010 at 6:37 pm
Decisions are usually simple and clear ,,, when someone else has to make them.
March 3rd, 2010 at 7:08 pm
All the worlds problems can be solved in 10 minutes of oversimplified conversation over lunch.
March 3rd, 2010 at 9:30 pm
I make difficult decisions with no good options most weeks of the year. I have for many years.
Earlier I have a link to the Chris Christie speech in New Jersey – give it a listen. He is approaching it right.
March 3rd, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Our problems have simple solutions. The difficulty is breaking the political lock on our wallets. Those people, unions, public sector employees, so forth, enjoy unfettered access to our present and future wallets – we need to break them of it. Now.
March 3rd, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Sir Thomas More had all the answers in Utopia. He lost his head.
Do Presidents want or need to have all the answers? Obama is one of those Utopian loving slugs who thinks he does. Shows how dumb he is.
Utopia was filled with good and bad, e.g. no lawyers and slavery.
It wasn’t funded, but when did that ever stop a tyrant. Only guns do that.
December 21st, 2011 at 10:38 am
I had been wanting to know if you ever thought of replacing the page layout of your blog? Its well written; I really like what you have got to state. But maybe you could create a a bit more in the way of content so people might connect with it better. You have got an awful lot of wording for only having one or two photos. Maybe you could space it out better?