ib1yysguy
Junior Member
OK, class, to get at this, we are going to have a pop quiz today, but this should be an easy one, so stop that whining or Phil Gramm will teach this course, you should all get 100%.
[...]
Certainly, as good students of history, you recognize that Reagan did not inherit the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Nor did he inherit two wars, nor the collapse of the automobile industry, nor 8 years of budget profligacy, nor the radical right wing championing (and avoiding service in) another war or two or three. The retirement of the baby-boomers was 25 years in the future, not already ongoing and accelerating.
And, of course, you don't need little Johnny Boehner to tell you that tax rates, even for the wealthiest Americans, are now already 14% lower than Reagan's 1981 tax cut, nor that 95% of Americans received a tax cut in the Obama stimulus, nor that tax rates will still be 10.5% lower for the wealthiest when Obama allows the George W tax cuts to expire, nor that those cuts were intended to expire for the simple reason that they were projected then to cause to big a hole in the deficit.
[...]
Class, I am shocked, shocked, that no one is raising his right hand. So, I'll tell you. Reagan inherited an unemployment rate of 7.6%, no wars, no major financial crisis, a still robust auto industry, a right wing clamoring for increased defense spending (that helps domestic employment), no retiring baby boomers actually taking down social security funds.
To answer the pop quiz: the unemployment rate under Reagan went from 7.6% to 9.7-9.8% in the summer after his inaugural, and remained at that level for two years, before it began to decline in the summer of 1983. In "Obama-time", that would be the equivalent of the summer of 2011. Moreover, the economy did not begin improving until the Spring, 1983, in "Obama-time" that is Spring, 2011.
Surprise question for extra credit: what was Reagan's approval rating in January, 1983, two years into his Presidency? Again, no one raising their right hand except Dickie Cheney and OJ? OK, the correct answer: 35%--an approval rating only Dick Cheney and OJ Simpson would cheer.
Last question for extra credit: what was the unemployment rate when Reagan left office? C'mon boys and girls, you can get this one. Ah, now the right hands go up, but wait, wait, keep them up, it's not SO bad... Here's a hint: the "Reagan revolution" dropped unemployment by 2.1% from start to finish--that's right, you've got it, it was 5.5% when Reagan left office. (Ok, Ok, I know, the first George Bush reversed that too, but, hey, he was only Reagan's heir at the time, we did not yet have the pleasure of knowing him as George W's father, and George W showed us what a real Reagan revolution could mean).
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-abrams/pop-quiz-under-reagan-wha_b_341348.html
[...]
Certainly, as good students of history, you recognize that Reagan did not inherit the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Nor did he inherit two wars, nor the collapse of the automobile industry, nor 8 years of budget profligacy, nor the radical right wing championing (and avoiding service in) another war or two or three. The retirement of the baby-boomers was 25 years in the future, not already ongoing and accelerating.
And, of course, you don't need little Johnny Boehner to tell you that tax rates, even for the wealthiest Americans, are now already 14% lower than Reagan's 1981 tax cut, nor that 95% of Americans received a tax cut in the Obama stimulus, nor that tax rates will still be 10.5% lower for the wealthiest when Obama allows the George W tax cuts to expire, nor that those cuts were intended to expire for the simple reason that they were projected then to cause to big a hole in the deficit.
[...]
Class, I am shocked, shocked, that no one is raising his right hand. So, I'll tell you. Reagan inherited an unemployment rate of 7.6%, no wars, no major financial crisis, a still robust auto industry, a right wing clamoring for increased defense spending (that helps domestic employment), no retiring baby boomers actually taking down social security funds.
To answer the pop quiz: the unemployment rate under Reagan went from 7.6% to 9.7-9.8% in the summer after his inaugural, and remained at that level for two years, before it began to decline in the summer of 1983. In "Obama-time", that would be the equivalent of the summer of 2011. Moreover, the economy did not begin improving until the Spring, 1983, in "Obama-time" that is Spring, 2011.
Surprise question for extra credit: what was Reagan's approval rating in January, 1983, two years into his Presidency? Again, no one raising their right hand except Dickie Cheney and OJ? OK, the correct answer: 35%--an approval rating only Dick Cheney and OJ Simpson would cheer.
Last question for extra credit: what was the unemployment rate when Reagan left office? C'mon boys and girls, you can get this one. Ah, now the right hands go up, but wait, wait, keep them up, it's not SO bad... Here's a hint: the "Reagan revolution" dropped unemployment by 2.1% from start to finish--that's right, you've got it, it was 5.5% when Reagan left office. (Ok, Ok, I know, the first George Bush reversed that too, but, hey, he was only Reagan's heir at the time, we did not yet have the pleasure of knowing him as George W's father, and George W showed us what a real Reagan revolution could mean).
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-abrams/pop-quiz-under-reagan-wha_b_341348.html
