Monday, April 5, 2010

The Real Reagan Legacy Betrays Republican Whining.


The possible hero of the fifty dollar bill, Ronald Reagan, is all myth.

Even though Republicans know the gory details of the Reagan administration failures, they have decided instead to create a different reality. If Obama's unemployment numbers are so bad, and the recovery from the recession is so slow, why give a pass to Reagan's tax cut mess?

CBSNews.com: (Reagan's tax cut of 1982 was quickly followed by a depression of some two years) From January 1982 to November 1982, the unemployment rate rose from 8.6 to 10.4 percent. On election eve, unemployment was higher than it had been since the Great Depression. Reagan would urge voters to have patience with his economic policies and to “vote your hopes, not your fears.”
They took the patience route, surprisingly. It took over two years for the unemployment numbers to improve. But not for Obama. Republicans didn't even wait a year to save the economy they destroyed.

So with Obama in charge, Republicans warn he'll turn the U.S into a European country. How bad is that:

Thepeopleschoice.org: Today, Germany is the world’s largest exporter of manufactured goods, ahead of China. To make the point even more dramatically, German wages and benefits today are higher than those in the America even as it maintains a much higher and better 'safety net'. Germany alone disproves just about everything the GOP ever told you about economics.
Proving Naomi Klein's theory of disaster capitalism true:

The GOP (always proves) beneficial to ruling elites. It is during depressions that they get richer and everyone else gets poorer. It is during periods in which prices decline that the 'robber baron' mentality picks up bargains among stocks and properties. The GOP adoration of Milton Friedman is misplaced. Friedman does not have the track record to disprove anything that resulted as a result of the application of Keynesian principles.
So which party is better for the working class? Take a look at the job growth numbers:

Johnson 3.8%
Carter 3.1
Clinton 2.4
Kennedy 2.3
Nixon 2.3
Reagan 2.1
Bush 0.6
Source: US DEPT OF COMMERCE


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