Vos actually wants Rush honored in Wisconsin?

Rush Limbaugh was not an admired public figure the last time I looked. He did bring about an open homophobic and racist "normal" for conservatives to embrace under the guise of "free speech." 

And who can forget, or try not to remember...

Assembly speaker and cosplay governor Robin Vos sent the following letter to the governor. A statewide lowering of flags to honor...Rush? Sure, why not shove this crackpots career down everyone's throat? As Eric Boehlert of Press Run said:

"Rush Limbaugh, the 70-year-old broadcaster, who once compared Covid-19 to the "common cold," died from lung cancer.

The AP described his decades of hate programming as a "merry brand of malice," and left out the part where he was the proud voice of racism, homophobia, sexism, xenophobia, and lots of other brands of denigration that he spread around the AM dial." 

 Boehlert continues...

"A country club demagogue, he helped America’s right-wing normalize a distinct culture of bigotry and cruelty. 

He steered the Republican Party towards no longer caring about policy and governance in any way, and instead focused on 'owning liberals,’ trolling Democrats, and purposefully lying. And the press cheered.

"I know I have become the intellectual engine of the conservative movement," Limbaugh told the New York Times, pretending his programming of mockery and loathing was akin to serious debate. Before birtherism there was Rush. Before InfoWars and QAnon, there was Rush, purposefully polluting American minds for profit.

Limbaugh clearly did emerge as the Voice of American Conservatism, a proud emblem of mockery, race-baiting, and prejudice. That culture was soon perfected by Trump, where any topic and issue was best debated by lying about everything, at all times. Limbaugh "leaves behind a conservative movement no longer interested in truth," noted former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh.

A straight line today exists between the birth of Limbaugh's right-wing career and the murderous mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6. As one Twitter user put it yesterday, "Limbaugh is, and always has been, a very Proud Boy."

The Beltway press for decades glorified his career, only occasionally acknowledging it took place entirely in the gutter. This week, the press is presenting him as a hugely popular, powerful, and oh yes, sometimes controversial host.

It needed to be transparent about the endless litany of lies and heartless smears Limbaugh gleefully trafficked in for decades, as he stuffed his pockets with millions and wallowed in the misfortune of others.

Limbaugh was an awful, awful person."- Eric Boehlert

 

Republican Doom & Gloom predictions about Obama Economy Wrong. Now in Charge with all new predictions, will they succeed!!?

On the major issues facing our country, Republicans were flat out wrong in their now wacky predictions of doom and gloom. But those predictions did sour the public on Obama and the progress he made restoring the economy. It also got Trump elected.

Now these same geniuses are in charge, again predicting a Republican utopia of plentiful jobs, energy, cheaper and better health care, and world wide peace through brother Russia.

Suckers. Think Progress made a list of what now read like Onion stories:

1. Gas was supposed to cost $6.60 per gallon.In March 2012, on the floor of the United States Senate, Mike Lee (R-UT) predicted that if Obama was reelected gas would cost $6.60 per by the end of Obama’s second term. Newt Gingrich, running for the GOP nomination, predicted that if Obama was reelected he would push gas to “$10 a gallon.” Gingrich said he would reduce gas prices dramatically by reversing Obama’s energy policies. Lee, Gingrich and others criticized — the rejection of Keystone XL pipeline, more EPA regulation and limiting drilling on public land — have not gotten in the way of historically low prices. 

2. Unemployment was supposed to be stuck at over 8%: In September 2012, Mitt Romney predicted that if Obama is reelected “you’re going to see chronic high unemployment continue four years or longer.” Romney pledged that, if elected, he could bring the unemployment rate down to 6% by January 2017. The unemployment rate currently stands at 4.6% and has been under 6% since September 2014.

3. The stock market was supposed to crash: Immediately after Obama won reelection in November 2012, many commenters, including Donald Trump, predicted that the stock market was toast. The Dow Jones Industrial Average currently stands at 19,762.60 and is up over 46% since Obama was reelected. 

4. The entire U.S. economy was supposed to collapse: Rush Limbaugh predicted that

“the country’s economy is going to collapse if Obama is re-elected.” Limbaugh was confident in his prediction: “There’s no if about this. And it’s gonna be ugly. It’s gonna be gut wrenching, but it will happen.” The economic free-fall would begin, according to Limbaugh, because “California is going to declare bankruptcy” and Obama would force states like Texas to “bail them out.” California currently has a $2.8 billion budget surplus. Limbaugh added, “I know mathematics, and I know economics. I know history. I know socialism, statism, Marxism, I know where it goes. I know what happens at the end of it.” Limbaugh said the economic apocalypse could take “a year and a half, two years, three years.” It’s been four years and two months since Limbaugh’s prediction. The U.S. economy grew at a robust 3.5% in the 3rd quarter of 2016.

Defending the Confederate Flag, Rush predicts American Flag next!!! This is not the Onion!!

Like Joseph Goebbels before him, Rush has fixated on one specific group, liberals, vilifying and branding them as anti-American fear mongers worried sick the American flag will turn citizens to the political right. I must have missed that email. 

Like an Onion parody, Rush takes reality and twists it into fun filled propaganda that low information conservative voter believe hook-line-and-sinker. Hat tip to my conservative friend in Milwaukee, who sent me this, writing in the subject line (shortened here):

"This is true I've said it 4 years. When the State Department has decided not to fly the American flag at embassies because it's afraid they might offend and when you can't wear an American flag t-shirt in a high school … it's already here hope you're proud."

Rush Limbaugh's prediction is humorous to me, but scary to those right wing hypocrites that can't stop talking about defending the 1st Amendment:

“The next flag that will come under assault, and it will not be long, is the American

flag. It is gonna happen. We are trending that way. It makes perfect sense. If you take a look at the timeline of progression of events, the speed and rapidity with which the left is conducting this assault on all of these American traditions and institutions, if you don’t think the American flag’s in their crosshairs down the road, you had better stop and reconsider.

The American flag is what? It’s the symbol of America. The left, what? Doesn’t like this country very much and never has and it’s getting angrier and angrier about it seemingly every day. The American flag stands for the United States of America and as such, everything that’s wrong with it. And you wait, it isn’t gonna be long before the American flag is gonna cause chills, fear, scary thoughts … [because] it’s a symbol of hate.”

Rush's thoughts are crazy, but the underlying premise is real; the repeated use of symbols denoting patriotism have not just given the U.S. Constitution to the GOP, but the flag as well. Troll tweeter LizzieFiles alerted me to this weird study. Wanna bet we're going to see an avalanche of flag display requirement laws throughout the nations Republican legislatures:

Shock Study: U.S. Flag Only Boosts GOP: Exposure to even a tiny American flag turns Democrats into Republicans.

Just a brief exposure to an image of the American flag shifts voters, even Democrats, to Republican beliefs, attitudes and voting behavior even though most don't believe it will impact their politics, according to a new two-year study just published in the scholarly Psychological Science.

What's more, according to three authors from the University Chicago, Cornell University and Hebrew University, the impact had staying power. "A single exposure to an American flag resulted in a significant increase in participants' Republican voting intentions, voting behavior, political beliefs, and implicit and explicit attitudes, with some effects lasting 8 months," the study found. "These results constitute the first evidence that nonconscious priming effects from exposure to a national flag can bias the citizenry toward one political party and can have considerable durability."

Another recent Harvard University professor's study that found that kids who attended a July 4th parade ended up leaning Republican when they grew up.

It's also sure to prompt GOP presidential candidates to add more U.S. flags at their events and speeches.

Democrats could learn a few things about marketing...I mean propaganda.

Surprise! People don't trust Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck or Fox News!

The following Pew graphs tell the whole story. It's interesting to note the higher trust level for MSNBC, despite average ratings. As a former talk show host, I can't imagine doing all the show prep Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity do (fabricated or not), knowing the audience doesn't believe a word I'm saying. A total waste of time. Click to enlarge:

Real Walker Brownshirts form armed "Wisconsin Poll Watcher Militia," targeting Recall Petition Signers.

We kind of thought this would happen.

Scott Walker's recall blacklist has now morphed into a citizen police state of brownshirt "stand with Walker" thugs. Walker's liberal use of the black list, targeting individuals for punishment, set an example for his loyal followers.

And they're armed and quite seriously dangerous. We need to bring photo IDs AND guns to the polls in November or we can't vote? So many new rules!  Even Rush Limbaugh chimed in to promote their new "Poll Watcher Militia." And oh yea, the word salad talk queen herself, Vicki McKenna, jumped on the bandwagon as well. Radio station owners are okay with this?



I always kind of knew this was a possibility, because after all, Republicans have not only vilified Democrats but have said over and over they don't believe liberals have a place in government or in our legal system. That leaves us with a one party system, and we've seen through history what that leads to. Cap Times' Steve Elbow:

A self-described militia group claims to be checking names on the 2012 Scott Walker recall petition and plans to confront those found to have outstanding warrants or tax defaults at the polls on Nov. 4.

"We prefer our people be armed," reads a Facebook post by Wisconsin Poll Watcher Militia, screen captured on a blog at Politicususa.com. "Some will be heading to some of Milwaukee, Racine, and Beloit's worst areas. We will be armed with a list of people to look for at each location."

To compile the list of names, the group is using the website Put Wisconsin First, which has divided petition signers into categories. For instance, the "Tax Delinquents for Recall" category lists 571 petition signers who are in tax arrears. One category lists 444 sex offenders and another lists Democratic political donors. Another page on the site allows users to search petition signers by offense, everything from homicide to speeding.

And I love this…

A Wisconsin Poll Watcher Militia response on Facebook reads: "We can assure you that
we will be targeting all democrats, not just black ones. If you think we meant blacks only it is because you are a racist who thinks the only people with warrants are black. We know better because we have a nice list of people who are wanted democrat activist types. Most are actually white. We will target everyone."

Walker's unapologetic use of the recall blacklist opened the door for the party reactionaries to take it to the next step. Of course, it'll be interesting to see how Walker deals with this right wing authoritarian behavior, and the kind of press he might not like.

This is an attempt to frighten people so they could suppress the vote, plain and simple. There is a legal remedy:

According to the Justice Department, “The administration of elections is chiefly a function of state government. However, federal authorities may become involved where there are possible violations of federal law. In cases where intimidation, coercion, or threats are made or attempts to intimidate, threaten or coerce are made to any person for voting or attempting to vote, the Department of Justice can consider whether there is federal jurisdiction to bring civil claims or criminal charges under federal law. Depending on the nature of the allegations, they may fall into the jurisdiction of different parts of the Department. If you have information about allegations of intimidation, please contact us.” You can contact the Justice Department here, and request that the election be monitored.

Limbaugh's Excellence In Broadcasting (KEIB Los Angeles) ratings fall behind College Radio.

Exploding the myth of Limbaugh's excellence:

There's only one radio station in America that takes its name from Rush Limbaugh's radio empire and that's KEIB in Los Angeles -- the EIB mirrors Limbaugh's "Excellence in Broadcasting" motto. Clear Channel, which syndicates Limbaugh's program nationally, owns the station and flipped the call letters to KEIB in honor of him in January. Three months later, Limbaugh's KEIB is a ratings disaster, coming in 37th place in the second largest radio market in America with a .5 rating share in March, the most recent month available, according to Nielsen ratings … eleven non-English radio stations have larger audiences in Los Angeles … And so small that KEIB actually trails four college-run, non-commercial stations in the market. This, for a man who makes $40 million a year to attract big radio audiences?

Sadly, CBS responds to Rush Limbaugh's disapproval of Stephen Colbert.

It was kinda stupid when we first heard the phony outrage over Stephen Colbert:

CBS' decision to tap Stephen Colbert as David Letterman's "Late Show" replacement sparked outrage on the right, as Colbert is best known for making fun of conservatives…

In an odd way, the right wing anger exposed their unsettling designs; a one party takeover that discourages "dissension" disguised as parody.

My heart sank when I saw a major TV network respond to a known racist, bigot and BS bloviating conservative talk host like Rush Limbaugh. What we’re they thinking?

TPM: Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh sounded the alarms when CBS made the announcement. "CBS has just declared war on the Heartland of America," Limbaugh said. "No longer is comedy going to be a covert assault on traditional American values. Now it's just wide out in the open."

CBS chief executive Les Moonves addressed Limbaugh's criticisms: "I would respectfully disagree with that assessment of who Stephen Colbert is," Moonves said. "As one reporter put it, 'So suddenly Rush is going soft on Letterman?'"

Isn't it also true that Rush attacked every American who doesn't fit in to his twisted world view? Yet we waste our time responding to homophobic misogynists like Limbaugh. 

Moonves’ comment had the destructive effect of legitimizing the ranting’s of a madman.  

"You know what? Ironically, Stephen Colbert is much more moderate than people think he is," said Wednesday at the Milken Institute Global Conference, as recorded by the Hollywood Reporter. "He's a great social commentator, and that's sort of what we want. That's sort of what David Letterman has been."

Intimidate, submit...the drum beat continues: 

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly also expressed concern over CBS' choice. "It'd be hard to fathom that 40 percent of Americans that describe themselves as conservative will watch Colbert," he said.

Rush still on air despite Ratings Plummet. Damn liberal media again...?

Newspapers made a huge mistake when they gave up printing the latest local radio ratings. When they stopped, they inadvertently allowed Rush Limbaugh to create the false impression he was immensely popular. Here's a tweet from another "Stand with Walker" zombie twit:

No one is listening. In fact, Rush's rating are much lower than any time slot I had in my own career. And as a liberal, I was never given enough time to grow an audience. With Best of Madison awards and even being number two in the mornings, it never quite cut it. Take a look at old Rushbo's numbers. No one in radio could survive his ratings plummet. So don't blame liberals for not being able to grab the interest of listeners when Rush has essentially tanks and still has a job:

Limbaugh projection about health care reveals conservative obsession over having total control!

If you were unfortunate enough to "think" like Rush Limbaugh, than you're nothing more than another control freak willing to use health care as a bargaining chip to control the population. Don't believe me, just take a look at Paul Ryan's plan. Republicans will tell us what kind of health care we're going to get, and that's it. Good luck. Of course, our elected politicians will continue to take their taxpayer paid for health care plans...for life.

Everything Rush said in the clip below is just how Republicans would use health care to control us. It's a warning, and a companion piece to a comment by Gov. Rick Perry:

Former Music DJ Limbaugh should have lost his job years ago. Mediocre story telling rewarded with money and millions of gullible numskulls listeners.

Remember Al Franken's book "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot...." Franken wasn't just kidding.

Blubbering media leaders like Rush on the Republican side of the aisle have been given a prominent role guiding policy in our country.

When these media “leaders” expose their lunacy with one or two credibility smashing comments, conservative listeners don’t wisely take them less seriously the next time around, they instead come back for more. My conservative friend says he's funny. That's if you find racism and misogyny humorous.

And that’s the odd quirk I still don’t understand. I’m mystified why conservatives don’t lose interest.

For example, Rush Limbaugh is a former rock jock who found success in talk, essentially recreating the genre. I came from that industry and worked it for 25 years. And having met many on-air personalities, and I can tell you without hesitation, besides being dedicated radio geeks their skill set is somewhat limited. I humbly include myself in that group.

What got me going on this topic were these comments from Rush:

"Fifty-two million taxpayers haven't been born, is the way Washington looks at it. They don't look at it morally. They don't look at it in any kind of cultural way or any kind of cultural impact. They just say … we have 52 million fewer people paying taxes. We gotta replace 'em. Hello, amnesty. It's had an impact on crime. It's had a profound impact on our politics. It is at the root of our cultural rot and decay. And I'm not talking about the women. I'm talking the overall effect of a society having literally no problem with eliminating 52 million of its citizens. That can't be good."

Absolute unadulterated madness dressed up as serious “insight.” Rush doesn't just vilify women, he also manipulates religion, twisting it tightly around racism.

The days when program directors would storm into a studio demanding accuracy and professionalism is long gone. 

The Difference: Almost all liberal talk hosts advise their listeners to research the facts and issues they hear on the program, instead of taking their word for it. Conservative hosts do just the opposite, and become part of the story that they themselves have created. Due to their lack of insight, this jabbering lot of losers makes stuff up as a way to fill their 3 hour time slot. It sure beats actual content and thoughtful analysis they can back up with facts.  

Major Conservative Radio Celebrities say differing News Coverage "Offends," is Rigging Election.

Have you ever noticed how talk radio is almost always conservative? Except in just a few major metro area’s, conservative talk is all you hear.

The same can be said of the dominating influence of the Fox News Network and the Wall Street Journal. In liberal Madison, Wisconsin, our only daily paper is conservative. The editorial board at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is wildly conservative. Even corporate news outlets like NBC, CBS, ABC only offer what can be best describes as watered down, both side do drivel every night.  

But such media domination isn’t enough. Introducing the next manufactured outrage just in time for the elections: The “leftist agenda!” Don't fall for the "out of control" bias, the rigging of elections, breaching the public trust, and shamefully smearing Mitt Romney.

The media should stop repeating Mitt's comments and policy statements. Instead, they should jump on the next phony issue or manufactured outrage, like below.

Washington Examiner: More than 20 conservative leaders and media figures including Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and Mark Levin, on Tuesday accused ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN today of rigging coverage to help reelect President Obama.

We'd like a one party authoritarian state!

"This election year, so much of the broadcast networks, their cable counterparts, and the major establishment print media are out of control with a deliberate and unmistakable leftist agenda. To put it bluntly: you are rigging this election and taking sides in order to pre-determine the outcome," they said in a letter to the networks that was organized by the conservative media watchdog Media Research Center. "You have breached the public trust by willfully turning a blind eye to the government's public policy failures, both domestic and foreign, while openly and shamefully smearing Gov. Mitt Romney," said the letter signed by MRC President Brent Bozell and the others.

If that wasn’t pathetic enough, these right wing corporate media whores actually want you to stop listening to everyone else. Yes, they’re really saying that:

"It is time the American people turn you who are offending off, once and for all. You have betrayed their trust," they added.

Information does have a way of "offending" some people. We now know who they are in the list above.

Limbaugh spills the beans on GOP use of Polls: voter suppression.

The Republican Party still hasn't grasped the meaning of "projection:" a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, usually to other people. According to Sigmund Freud, projection is a psychological defense mechanism whereby one "projects" one's own undesirable thoughts, motivations, desires, and feelings onto someone else. 'Emotions or excitations which the ego tries to ward off are "split out" and then felt as being outside the ego...perceived in another person'.

In fact Rush Limbaugh blurted out a tactic we just saw used masterfully during the Walker recall election, where poll results became a talking point intended to discourage Democratic voter turnout; polls showing the Walker lead over his opponents, the dissatisfaction over the recall process itself, and the public's ambivalence to spend money on maintaining a democratic republic...etc.

Another GOP tactic to be keenly aware of, thanks to the buffoon of right wing talk:

Rush on Batman, Bane and the cartoons.

The Colorado theater massacre cast a dark shadow over what was, a welcome third installment in the Dark Knight series. I'll have more on that once I take in all the details, and the gun laws that allow this madness to continue.

Still, on the political side, we were treated with a surreal dose of lunacy from Rush Limbaugh:

Rushbo:“Do you think it is accidental that the name of the really vicious, fire-breathing, four-eyed, whatever-it-is villain in this movie is named Bane?" Limbaugh asked on his radio show. He added, “So this evil villain in the new Batman movie is named Bane. And there's discussion out there as to whether or not this was purposeful and whether or not it will influence voters. It's going to have a lot of people. The audience is going to be huge. A lot of people are going to see the movie. And it's a lot of brain-dead people -- entertainment, the pop culture crowd -- and they're going to hear Bane in the movie and they're going to associate Bain.”

It’s apparently a plot hatched in 1993.

Liars should come with a warning....

Here's the graphic shown in the HBO series Newsroom during one of their newscasts. It hit home. Shouldn't we see this used more often in our daily newscasts?:

Sandra Fluke responds to Limbaugh, and Imus trashes him too.

Sandra Fluke went on the View and gave an impressive defense of contraception and women's rights. She doesn't mince words, or get wordy. She also would not except Rush Limbaugh's empty apology. It's time we all stop excepting apologies from those who make themselves exceedingly clear the first time in their most inarticulate way. Another must see gutsy response to the radical right:



Here's Don Imus ripping Rush, in an interesting turn:

Hey Rush, post your free health care provided Viagra erection online!

Here's the now viral rant by Rush, calling a college law student a slut, for defending free contraception for women.

He also asks that women provide publicly posted porn videos of themselves using the contraception.

Gee Rush, if we're going to pay for Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs, than maybe men can post their hard-on's online as well!

Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke closes the video below with her take on Rush.



Tip to Sandra Fluke, law student; you're a private citizen, who's character was assassinated by Rush. That sound like a defamation of character lawsuit to me, and a sure thing.

Race not an issue for Republicans? Rush and Coulter don't seem to think so.

Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter show their racist stripes with outrageous comments about phony Democratic racism toward blacks. Like Coulter says:

Ann Coulter: "Our blacks are so much better than their blacks..."

Are back to owning blacks again?

Conservative Talk Radio Declining Dramatically, or has it always been this low?

This is a big story!

Having been in the radio business for over 25 years, about ten in political talk radio, I know a little about the inside workings of our corporate media.

What we thought we knew is all wrong.

The old ratings system depended on listeners filling out diaries according to their loyalties and memory. Maybe even a little lying. But with the new people metering system in place, actual listening habits have revealed something even more shocking; our favorite conservative talk show hosts aren't as popular as we thought they were.

MSNBC's Cenk Uygur and talk radio consultant Holland Cooke blow the lid off what might bring about a major shift in radio programming and a few less conservative talkers. Conservative talk radio now dominates 92 percent of the talk radio dial based on opinion based survey diaries. But the new people meters are tamper/opinion proof.

Conservatives hair on fire mix up, blame new emergency alert first introduced by Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, on "Dear Leader Obama.."

I normally don't give Rush Limbaugh much space here due to his overt racism, but this story included so many other bad actors as well. 

Scraping every paranoid corner of their enormous fear filled agenda, conservative media jumped all over Obama's plan to send out an emergency alert via mobile phones, calling him "Dear leader Obama." Media Matters:

Following the announcement of a new national emergency alert system that will alert the public to significant emergencies via mobile phone messages, right-wing media have attacked the plan, claiming that it will allow "Dear Leader Obama To Send You Text Messages." But the plan was implemented as a result of legislation introduced by GOP Sen. Jim DeMint that was overwhelmingly passed by Congress in 2006 and accompanied by an executive order signed by President Bush.

In a May 10 post on the right-wing blog Gateway Pundit titled, "Terrific...Dear Leader Obama to Send You Text Messages," blogger Jim Hoft wrote … 'Hello Gun-Toting, Bible Thumpers... This is Barry.

A top story on the Drudge Report on May 10 linked to a CBS New York article on the program under the headline, "Phones Required To Receive 'Homeland' Alerts."

The Blaze: "Mandated Messages: The President And Homeland Security Coming To Your Cell Phone." 

DeMint: "The WARN Act Is An Important Step To Help Secure America's Homeland In The Event Of A Disaster"-In a 2006 press release titled "Senate Approves DeMint Alert System." 

Note: This is a rewrite of an earlier blog post wiped out by a "Blogger" technical problem

Ditto Heads Stunned!! Rush stumped by liberal on actual Ronald Reagan record. Listener exodus coming.

Having been a radio host for over 25 years, I can recognize one thing without equivocation; When a phony wind bag talker gets exposed as a empty prevaricator, ON THE AIR. When you hear a guy like Rush Limbaugh grasping at straws like he does in the video below, you can't help but think how stunned dittoheads across America must have fallen off their chairs, realizing their conservative authority just got his shorts handed to him.

Thanks to Crooks and Liars for catching this ultimate example of vacuous conservative banter about the mythical Reagan legacy, and how easy it is to expose these fakes.




Caller: "I want to know why an amnesty-giving, tax-raising, cut-and-running, negotiating-with-terrorists kind of guy is a hero to the conservative movement."

Rush has no answer other than to blame Media Matters and suggest that liberals "just wouldn't understand." Predictably, he turns it into proof that liberals just need to be destroyed:

So you, sir, a nice individual, I'm sure you're a fine guy (probably not too much fun at a ball game, unlike Bill Clinton), but still, you illustrate that people like you just have to be defeated, not met halfway and gotten along with. I mean politically.

Fact:
Think Progress: Reagan grew the size of the federal government tremendously.Reagan promised “to move boldly, decisively, and quickly to control therunaway growth of federal spending,” but federal spending “ballooned” under Reagan. He bailed out Social Security in 1983 after attempting to privatize it, and set up a progressive taxation system to keep it funded into the future. 


Salon has this The Real Reagan.