General libertarian view of Reagan?

[RedStripe]

Reagan sucked.

 

[haaaylee]

YouTube - Ronald Reagan Speech - 1964 Republican National Convention

 

[Brett]

I can think of one good point; he showed that cutting taxes helps the economy. (Although JFK did it too).

Then he drove up the deficit, doubled spending, illegal wars, anti-drug, etc.

 

[TCE]

Good: Deregulated a few industries, airlines being one of them, if I remember correctly. Cut taxes.

Bad: Escalated war with USSR, spent massively on defense, expanded debt to unseen levels, illegal activities, didn't hold up to campaign promises.

Pretty terrible, but everyone after him was worse.

 

[haaaylee]

My grandfather was good friends with Reagan (and Bush Senior as well.) He actually came up with "Hugs not Drugs"

He had boxes of pens with that slogan on them in his office. And every paper i wrote was written with one of those pens, including the paper i wrote declaring Reagan as my favorite president.

Although, i chose him only because he used to be a movie star and at the time i was a huge "I Love Lucy" fan during the time she went to Hollywood with Ricky.

 

[jbuttell]

Yeah, he spoke real nice about limited government, freedom, blah blah blah. But actions speak louder than words. He was the Sarah Palin of his day, basically an empty suit that was controlled by the powers behind the scenes. A nice charasmatic figure that spoke in platitudes about less government and then did exactly the opposite once in power.

Sarah Palin.... hah, right.

 

[__27__]

Was Reagan perfect? Nope. Did he go back on many of his principles? Yep. So did Jefferson, so did Kennedy, most of the others never had principles to begin with. I love where his heart was, but I loathe where he governed.

At least he had balls to stand up to the unions. PATCO (air traffic control) decided their cush gig wasn't cush enough and thought they could "Bring America to it's knees" by striking. RR gave them 48 hours to report to work, and out of 13,000 he fired 11,500. Tell me another president with balls like that.

 

[Live_Free_Or_Die]

Nice speech.

 

[MichelleHeart]

I love where his heart was, but I loathe where he governed.

That's how I feel, too. My admiration for Reagan as a man and a messenger is there, but as a president, I feel much differently. His presidency was more talk than walk. What I have noticed, though, is that his speeches are a great educational tool. I got someone to completely rethink many of their positions by watching this video:

YouTube - Yes, we can (Reagan Remix) v2.0

It's a shame he didn't cut down the size of government the way Harding and Coolidge did.

 

[Danke]

Good: Deregulated a few industries, airlines being one of them, if I remember correctly.

No, that was Carter. But airlines remain one of the most regulated and taxed industries.

 

[__27__]

No, that was Carter. But airlines remain one of the most regulated and taxed industries.

Yes, but could you imagine if routes were still controlled and handed out in monopoly status by FedGov? It's FAR from perfect as is, but the only reason airlines like Delta, Northwest, et al are even around is because at one point in time they gladhanded enough to have a route handed to them, guaranteeing them business. And I'm not even touching price controls on airfare.

 

[AParadigmShift]

he showed that cutting taxes. . .

Cut taxes.

This is Reagan's [ugly] legacy - or myth rather, the one that neoconservative Republicans hold out as gospel to be preached far and wide.

However, while Reagan did make cuts in upper-income taxes, they were more than offset by increases in the Social Security tax - an increase borne by the middle class. Then we have the Tax Reform Act of 1986 that managed to extinguish tax deductions that benefited the middle class, yet, again, cut upper-income taxes.

Or, to view it another way, during Reagan's turn at the helm, gov't receipts increased by a whopping 103% (and even at that fevered clip, revenues were outpaced by the growth of gov't - hence the deficit spending) and as Murray Rothbard quipped, "whatever that is, that is not a tax cut."

And what does it matter if you "cut" taxes yet enlarge gov't to a hitherto unimaginable scope, grow the debt to eye-popping proportions and engage in irresponsible deficit spending?

No, Reagan was certainly not a libertarian, and by any honest accounting, he wasn't a trueconservative either. However, he was the rickety bridge by which social conservatives and chicken-hawks alike (the great neoconservative horde) crossed over to all but destroy whatever vestiges of old right, paleo-conservative sympathies were yet gimping about.

 

[NYgs23]

If you could separate his rhetoric from the rest of him and make the rhetoric his entire legacy, it would be a great legacy. Unfortunately, after his first year or two, his presidency was a mess. I consider Clinton a less bad president.

However, according to Murray Rothbard he was even a bad governor, so you can't really use the "Washington corrupted him" excuse:

Reagan’s record as governor of California – where he had absolutely no access to the nuclear button – was all too moderate. Despite his bravado about having stopped the growth of state government, the actual story is that the California budget grew by 122 percent during his eight years as governor, not much of an improvement on the growth rate of 130 percent during the preceding two terms of free-spending liberal Pat Brown. The state bureaucracy increased during Reagan’s administration from 158,000 to 192,000, a rise of nearly 22 percent – hardly squaring with Reagan’s boast of having "stopped the bureaucracy cold."

Neither is Reagan’s record on taxes any comfort. He started off with a bang by increasing state taxes nearly $1 billion in his first year in office – the biggest tax increase in California history. Income, sales, corporate, bank, liquor, and cigarette taxes were all boosted dramatically. Two more tax hikes – in 1971 and 1972 – raised revenues by another $500 million and $700 million respectively.

By the end of Reagan’s eight years, state income taxes had nearly tripled, from a bite of $7.68 per $1000 of personal income to $19.48. During his administration, California rose in a ranking of the states from twentieth to thirteenth in personal income tax collection per capita, and it rose from fourth to first in per capita revenue from corporate income taxes. As John Vickerman, chief deputy in the legislative analyst’s office in Sacramento, concluded: "Obviously, the tax bite went up under the Reagan regime. It was a significant increase even when you start considering inflationary dollars.... The rate of growth was about the same as his predecessor."

The more charitable interpretation is that he believed in freedom as an abstract ideal, but was completely inept at practically implementing it. The less charitable interpretation is that he was a barefaced liar. Take your pick.

 

[NYgs23]

No that's not an outfit from wardrobe, that's the most decorated soldier in American history, Audie Murphy, Hollywood actor. Left acting to fight in WWII.

He didn't become an actor until after the war.

 

[AuH20]

Yeah, he spoke real nice about limited government, freedom, blah blah blah. But actions speak louder than words. He was the Sarah Palin of his day, basically an empty suit that was controlled by the powers behind the scenes. A nice charasmatic figure that spoke in platitudes about less government and then did exactly the opposite once in power.

you're comparing Reagan to Palin? Reagan is overrated but Palin?!!? Palin could not hold a candle to Reagan on a lectern or during a general Q&A session.

 

[johnrocks]

He talked a good game prior to becoming president. Very disappointing once he got there. Dramatically grew government, huge defense spending, all the possible illegal activities, etc...

My thoughts exactly although I voted for him both times and still don't regret it unlike the two days I curse voting for Bush;actually 4 days counting PaPa Bush