President Reagan was a staunch Republican, yet he was never blinded by ideology. History shows us he was loved by moderate Democrats, independents and Republicans alike. When necessary or advantageous, he was willing to work with anyone and everyone for the benefit of the country he loved so much. John Boehner boasted that he got 98 percent of what he wanted out of the debt ceiling negotiations and now we have a AA+ credit rating. Today, would Reagan say the 11 most dangerous words in the English language are "I’m from the Tea Party Caucus and I’m here to help."?
.
.
Yep:
Are we talking about the same President Reagan? The one that tripled the national debt? The one who presided over the largest creditor nation in the world and left us the largest debtor nation in the world? I don’t need to read history pal, I lived the Reagan years as an adult, and I thought he was a great president but he was nothing like the ideology-crazed tea party folks today.
.
.
Kelly Jones:
I think so too. That’s the Reagan I lived with for eight years.
P.S. I’m a California Republican. I lived with Reagan eight previous years as well when he was Governor of California.
.
.
Anthony:
I’m not so sure Reagan would be welcome in the Tea Party. The blind ideological rage that emanates from that group would certainly include labeling Reagan a RINO. Reagan spent six of his eight years with top tier tax rates between 50 and 70 percent. His last two years he dropped them precipitously and the national debt rocketed upward from 700 billion to 2 trillion. Reagan said debt doesn’t really matter, and remember, his academic degree was in economics. It’s the "t" point on the Laffer curve that matters, and it’s tough to find because it moves based on a variety of market conditions. For example, it’s not reasonable to assume the Bush tax cut to 35 percent did any good at all because we only experienced it through rising housing and stock market bubbles. Reagan would know this today based on his last two years in office where he experimented and failed with impossibly low tax rates. Remember Bush 41? "Read my lips, no new taxes." It was not economically possible to kee
It was not economically possible to keep taxes low for the highest income brackets.
.
.
Cropduster:
Of all the election campaigns I’ve experienced, dating back to ’72, Ross Perot’s campaign was my favorite. He treated us like thinking adults. He applied the findings of the Grace Commission to modern macro and provided us historic evidence and projection analysis to show us a great many things, including as you’ve stated, the bumbling of Congress. I am so sick of only hearing the message that polls well in focus groups! And I wish these politicians would answer the dam question asked rather than finding a shortcut to their stump speech every time they open their mouths. I would have probably voted for Perot had he stayed in the race. He was a breath of fresh air.