Reagan's Top Economist Says GOP Misled the U.S. and Tanked the Economy

College - the institution where 99% of the professors are leftists using their teaching podium as a platform to indoctrinate the young and naive into the very thought processes you have so eloquently displayed...enough said.

I can attest that everything that this guy said is true and was a part of evening news. I can remember Peter Jennings and Dan Rather talking about every one of the points here and I do recall their predictions for the harm that would come from it. Their predictions are true.

Criminal:

- Did not become involved with Iran contra (good for well, everyone)
- Did not encourage Iran to withhold hostages until his term (good for hostages and Iran)

Fiscal:

- Did not engage in supply side economics (Good for the consumer)
- Tripled the national surplus (Would be pretty stellar)
- $100 billion trade deficit > 12 billion trade surplus (Good for international economics)
- Made sure loans and savings stayed regulated (REALLY good for domestic economics, would avoid current economic crisis)
- Tax lowerer (Good for conservatives)
- Taxed the rich, cut taxes for the poor (Good for poor people)
- Never had the star wars debacle (Good for not wasting tons of money on useless shit)
- Never increased military spending to compete with the USSR (Good for the economic and political stability of both of our nations)
- Never deregulated oil industry to cause oil bust (Good for gas-purchasing consumers, which is almost every American)
- Negotiated with air traffic control union (Good for labor relations)

Social:
- Saved welfare (Good for poor people)
- Expanded healthcare system (Good for NOW)
- Made sure mental patients were kept in facilities and not released into the streets (Good for cities and city dwellers like me who are SURROUNDED by crazy homeless people)
- Dealt with the AIDs crisis (Good for everyone)
- Comprehensive sex education (Good for teen pregnancy rates and STD prevention)
- Strengthened ATF and banned automatic weapons and OWNED it (Good for integrity)
- Kept the prison system public (REALLY good for the incarcerated population and for those who have conflicts with the police)
- Decreased spending on the War on Drugs (Good for free thinking people)
- National drinking age kept at 18 (Good for young people)
- Over-funded NEA (Good for artists)
- Never manipulated EPA supergrants to help republicans win elections (Good for people who dislike fraud)
- Kept children's TV regulated (Good for parents who want their kids to learn)
- Saved energy programs (Good for the environment and the economy)
- No crack in the ghettos (Good for everyone, but especially poor minorities)

Foreign

- No wars in Central America (Good for foreign policy)
- Promoted peace solution for Iran and Iraq (Good for foreign policy)
- Never sent Marines into Beruit (Debatable)
- Upheld detente with USSR, allowing Gorbachev time to make things better (Good for stability of USSR's government, and foreign relations)
- Hunted down contras and stopped their drug running schemes (Good for anti-drug crowd/ foreign relations)
- Did not support right wing dictators (Good for free thinking people)

Concepts

- People on welfare need it (truer than Americans think)
- Trees don't cause pollution (true)
- Ketchup is not a vegetable (Also true)

Appointments

- No convicted appointees (Good for people who don't want convicts in the government)
- That nullifies the appointments...
- HUD was not a complete mess (Good for poor people)
- Made sure the CIA acted without alternate motives (Good for liberty)

Personal

- Resigned when alzheimer's cropped up (Good for integrity/ health)
- Was a great human being (Well, that's obviously interpretation)
- NOT a Mccarthyite (Good for liberty)
- Opposed moral majority (Good for people who don't like parental advisory stickers)
- Did not pardon Robert Walker (Good for Robert Walker's still living wife)
- Started presidential campaign in a hospital where someone was giving birth on the exact opposite point of the globe from Philadelphia MS (Good?)
- Did not lay a wreath or even attend an SS ceremony in Germany (Good for everyone)
- Opposed Vietnam (Good for free thinking individuals)
- Made sure right wing noise machine never gained ground (Good for intellectuals in BOTH parties)
- Loved sex, helped his son come out without pressure (Good for gay community and kinky people)
- Thought astrology was stupid and never gave it merit (Good for rational, free thinking individuals)
- Never developed talking points (Good for debate process)
- Answered questions directly (Good for everyone)
- Had a clear grasp on reality (Good for everyone)
- Friendly towards Russia (Good for foreign relations)

So, this is pretty overwhelmingly positive when you look at the opposite, don't you think? This Bizzaro Reagan would have gotten my vote in a heartbeat!

Instead, 30 years later, we have a collapsed, crime-ridden Russia, a shitty economy, we're still debating healthcare, Latin America has been recovering from the toxic-shock of Cold War for two decades, taxes are higher on poor people, there's less jobs to go around, there's more religious zealots, the conservative party no longer represents its true constituency and politicians debate in sound-bites to get their point across.

All this crap started with Reagan's awful excuse for a presidency.

The right is much worse than the left ever could be. In this country, left wing policies create a strong middle class. Right wing policies are destroying it.