Legacy - Blog Day Afternoon Posted by Jeff (Thursday June 10 2004 @ 10:47PM EDT)

At his first inaugural address, Ronald Reagan opined "In the present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." He promised to reduce its size and influence. Americans were pleased. Never mind that he led the Federal hog straight to the slop and fattened it to the point of obesity. Reagan correctly stated that government was too big, dammit. Years later Klinton dramatically reduced its size. He made government smaller, but he never said he was going to do that. At issue is not the size of government. It's what you say about the size of government that counts. Until Reagan took office, the British economist John Maynard Keynes threw a large shadow over American economic policy. But Reagan claimed to be influenced by an Austrian named Friedrich Hayek. If Reagan's policies are an indication, then Hayekian economics basically boils down to this: "Um, just put that on my credit card." When his Master Card was maxed out, Reagan applied for and recieved cards from Visa and American Express. When he left office, Reagan bestowed America's children almost three trillion dollars of debt. What did Klinton leave them? As the chart indicates, Klinton didn't leave 'em shit. Factoring out inflation, Federal spending was one-quarter higher when the Gipper left office than it was in 1980. Two hundred thousand people were added to the Federal workforce during the Reagan administration. Federal spending as a percentage of the GDP never dipped below 20% during the entire 1980s. Of course none of that matters. In speech after speech, he railed against big government. Tangible measurements of Reagan's performance in areas of concern to his administration mark him a failure. Rhetorically, however, he was the best. As the lines in Washington now attest, Americans love a good performance. -- Charts courtesy of The Pragmatist, number cruncher extraordinaire. Not only that, I stole a joke from him. Prag didn't use it; finders keepers.

< Gotta Love Old People | Eulogize It >

By The Pragmatist (Friday June 11 2004 @ 08:31AM EDT)

Keeping track of who is red and blue from the 2000 elections has always tripped me up. Historically, I associate red with the left. But Jeff finally punched this one home with: "That's easy, red is for Republicans -- they spend money like commies."

[ reply | parent ]

By MattC (Friday June 11 2004 @ 09:30AM EDT)

Why are you still wasting bandwidth over Reagan? Ray Charles passed away!

[ reply | parent ]

By Jeff (Friday June 11 2004 @ 10:07AM EDT) [ reply | parent ]

By Ms. Q (Friday June 11 2004 @ 11:12AM EDT) Like most everything else in the news, so what? [ reply | parent ]

By Anonymous (Friday June 11 2004 @ 10:08AM EDT)

"Congress passes bills I just sign them" GWB. Your charts show the difference between Dems holding congressional offices and Repugs holding congressional office.

[ reply | parent ]

By Funkman (Friday June 11 2004 @ 10:22AM EDT) Umm... in 2001 - 2003: The house was republican. The senate is essentially republican that whole time. Yet still the spending goes way up. [ reply | parent ]

By Jeff (Friday June 11 2004 @ 10:31AM EDT) The White House presents a budget proposal to Congress and not the other way around. [ reply | parent ]

By The Pragmatist (Friday June 11 2004 @ 11:01AM EDT) Republicans controlled the Senate in 6 of Reagan's 8 years and with conservative southern democrats, Reagan had good leverage in the House in his first term. [ reply | parent ]

By MattC (Friday June 11 2004 @ 11:41AM EDT) Presidents have the power to veto. How many spending bills and/or gov't size increase bills did the Republican presidents in question choose to veto? [ reply | parent ]

By Jeff (Friday June 11 2004 @ 11:51AM EDT)

Dear John Ashcroft, Beakesm3 was seen yammering on IRC during the designated moment of silence for our Great Leader. Such dissent only weakens the nation's resolve while it strengthens the hands of the terrorists. If you will kindly ship him to Gulag Guantanamo and employ the DOJ sanctioned persuasion tactics upon him, it would be most appreciated. In Christ, Jeff

[ reply | parent ]

By The Pragmatist (Friday June 11 2004 @ 01:08PM EDT) Criminey Beakesm3 -- Have some decency. Maybe you were too young to remember the time before Reagan brought down the Wall, but let me tell ya we didn't have the time to yammer on IRC when our backs were against the wall (this one being metaphorical not cement). Before Reagan I would have likely ended up on a tractor factory collective instead of in corporate America where individualism is celebrated. A man is being buried (sometime this year) but a Saint is being raised. Of course he needs 3 miracles but that should be no problem. Top of my list are: The Conversion of the Ketchup -- when he transmuted ketchup into a vegetable and fed a nation of schoolchildren. The Great Tax Cut -- sparing the rich from wearing last year's Yves St. Laurent. The Parable of the Red Dawn -- when a band of high school kids turned back an invasion by Cubans and Nicauragians. Of course he may get docked for launching Patrick Swayze's career. [ reply | parent ]

By MattC (Friday June 11 2004 @ 02:12PM EDT) Wolverines! Patrick Swayze had a few films under his belt by then, but it was Charlie Sheen's first. Also an early one for Jennifer Grey, Leat Thompson, and C. Thomas Howell. [ reply | parent ]

By Jeff (Friday June 11 2004 @ 02:14PM EDT) And MattC wonders why I worry about him... [ reply | parent ]

By Cher (Friday June 11 2004 @ 03:22PM EDT) Geez, who can forget Red Dawn. The tossled hair, well-placed facial dirt, the puffy vests, and a pre-nose-job Jennifer Grey... [ reply | parent ]

By beakesm3 (Friday June 11 2004 @ 01:37PM EDT)

Dear Mr. Ashcroft, My defense to Jeffs aquasations: http://www.Blogdayafternoon.com Who helps the terrorist more? In his name, Beakesm3 P.S I observed Reagans moment of silence at 8:01 the designated time. I did not attend the funeral so that moment of silence doesn't matter unless you were watching or attending the service. P.S.S: Jeff said he really liked the prison torcher pictures. Especially the men on men, he needs straightened out.As you can see by this blog site he couldn't stop talking about the pictures.

[ reply | parent ]

Post a Comment

Name: Email: URL   Remember my information (uses cookies)   I would rather be anonymous Comment: * HTML tags are allowed. * Your email will not be made public. * LINK SPAM WILL BE DELETED!