10 Things that Conservatives Dont Want You to Know About Ronald Reagan.

[rhett o rick]

From: http://thinkprogress.org/

1. Reagan was a serial tax raiser.

2. Reagan nearly tripled the federal budget deficit.

3. Unemployment soared after Reagan’s 1981 tax cuts.

4. Reagan grew the size of the federal government tremendously.

5. Reagan did little to fight a woman’s right to chose.

6. Reagan was a “bellicose peacenik.”

7. Reagan gave amnesty to 3 million undocumented immigrants.

8. Reagan illegally funneled weapons to Iran.

9. Reagan vetoed a comprehensive anti-Apartheid act.

10. Reagan helped create the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden.

Read details at thinkprogress.org

[Motown_Johnny]

1. some gun control also, but he had to be shot to make that happen

[BOHICA12]

3. I don't think that would bother conservatives ....

... since he took a licking and kept on ticking.

[DesertDiamond]

58. My first thought when that happened, and I still think it, he was a sacrificial lamb...

It was the day before the vote on Reaganomics and it was expected to be overwhelmingly defeated. After he was shot, every Dem voted for it because, with the "author" of the legislation supposedly near death in the hospital, they were afraid of PR repercussions if they didn't. That's why I think it was all just a ruse to get Reaganomics passed. Whether he was aware of that or not, don't know. But timing that is a little too convenient like that is always a red flag for me.

[madokie]

73. Hinkleys parents and the vp were having dinner the night before

thats always bothered me

[obxhead]

2. Rec, needs to make the home page imo. nt

[Rectangle]

50. He shamefully "Cut and Ran" from Lebanon in 1983 after the Marine barraks bombing!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Beirut_barracks_bombing


I guess it's alright if Saint Ronnie did it!

:patriot: :eyes:

[Oceansaway]

4. K&R...n/t

[snot]

5. AND deregulation of the S&L's under Reagan resulted in a major financial crisis.

[Enthusiast]

15. No doubt. That was the first. nt

[jmowreader]

26. It took TWO Reagan acts to kill the S&L industry

The first is deregulation, which gave the S&Ls the green light to invest in the kind of rental real estate that only makes financial sense to get into if you can deduct losses on it.

The second was during his "let's raise taxes by getting rid of deductions" phase, when he declared the deduction for Passive Loss a "loophole" and eliminated it from the tax code. (This is when he also eliminated the "loophole" that allowed individual taxpayers to deduct non-mortgage interest--this single "loophole" amounted to the largest tax increase on the American public ever enacted.)

When the deduction that made commercial rental property marginally profitable was removed, a LOT of people who were relying on it defaulted on their mortgages. This pulled the S&Ls into the abyss of bankruptcy--747 of them in all.

Yes, Reagan killed the S&Ls, but let's detail exactly how. The truth is, what pounded the final nail into their coffin was a REAGAN TAX HIKE!

[xchrom]

6. recommend

[justiceischeap]

7. Agreed to a $165 BILLION dollar bailout of Social Security

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0301.green.html

From the article, "Reagan's Liberal Legacy"

[rhett o rick]

12. I thought Reagan damaged Social Security. I would like to know more. nm

[justiceischeap]

14. Social Security Amendments of 1983

http://www.ssa.gov/history/1983amend.html

[WinkyDink]

21. "•Advances scheduled increases in Social Security tax rates."

[Hannah Bell]

49. "bailout"? it wasn't a bailout. it was a robbery.

reagan-greenspan increased SS taxes above the amount needed to fund it, thus creating 30 years of higher-than needed taxation & the $2.6 billion dollar trust fund they're now saying they can't repay because it will cause deficits & so benefits must be cut or taxes must be raised blah blah blah.

reagan-greenspan initiated taxation of SS benefits for the first time, took away some benefits (there was a college benefit for dependents of retirees & some other stuff).

there was no "bailout". a bailout implies that the money came from the government from progressive income taxes. it didn't, it came from workers.

all that was needed was a slight hike, something that had been done in the past without difficulty. in fact, all that was needed was to slightly accelerate already-scheduled increases in SS tax rates.

instead, they installed a time bomb.

[rhett o rick]

66. Thank you Hannah. I didnt think he helped SS. Do you have any articles

I might read about this?

[Hannah Bell]

71. here's one:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=326490&mesg_id=326490

it has several parts; the others are linked below it.


Shock Therapy
Part 1
by HB


As all good torturers know, fear and uncertainty can be wonderfully motivating.

In Naomi Klein’s latest book, The Shock Doctrine, she explains how this simple principle has been used by international financial institutions to push through neo-liberal economic policy around the world. In the wake of crises and disasters, the boys from the IMF and the World Bank would show up, loans in hand, preaching the gospel of privatization and austerity.

The natives, their better judgment clouded by fear and confusion — or bribes, when needed — would generally submit. It was called “shock therapy.”

Klein has, however, been at some pains to deny any deliberate engineering of crisis by the neo-liberal shock cadres. And though I’m generally enamored with her thesis, here we part ways. To my mind, there’s plenty of circumstantial evidence that deliberate engineering is sometimes precisely what’s going on.

Case in point, right here at home: Social Security.

A recent headline from my local paper: “Social Security 13.6 Trillion Short.” Big, scary number, but you’ll search the article in vain for any contextual detail. Just how much is 13.6 trillion? And when will this shortfall occur? Next week? Next year? Sometime in infinity?

They don’t say. Just the scary number. The lack of context, boys and girls, is a clue you’re being played.

The correct answer is: “Sometime in infinity”.1

It’s the Bush Administration making its annual noises about the Social Security “crisis.” Alan Greenspan has been out hyping the same message. On Democracy Now, for example, he pronounced that “There is no alternative” to increased private funding of retirement.2

But wait a minute. Alan Greenspan? I dimly remember him as the guy who “saved” Social Security, back in the reign of St. Ronnie Reagan. Greenspan chaired Reagan’s National Commission on Social Security Reform, for heaven’s sake, and made the recommendations that became the Social Security Amendments of 1983. A bipartisan Congress passed them, and Reagan signed them into law. St. Ron said at the time:

“This bill demonstrates for all time our nation’s ironclad commitment to Social Security. It assures the elderly that America will always keep the promises made in troubled times a half a century ago. It assures those who are still working that they, too, have a pact with the future. From this day forward, they have one pledge that they will get their fair share of benefits when they retire.”3

Now Alan’s saying we have to privatize? What terrible disaster’s occurred since 1983?

In fact, the disaster was the 1983 “reform” itself. Its main provision was an increase in Social Security taxes calculated to generate 25+ years of ever-increasing surpluses, surpluses that could be dumped into the general budget to grease the skids for tax cuts to the super-rich.

In 1983, 20 million in extra Social Security taxes and interest was collected, 20 million more than needed to pay retirees. In 1988, Reagan’s last year in office, the surplus was 38 billion. By 2006, it was 182 billion,4 and nearly 2 trillion in bonds sat in the Social Security Trust Fund, mostly surplus tax payments and interest accumulated since 1983.5

The 2006 surplus was 1/3 over and above the $544 billion mailed out to beneficiaries that year. 102 billion of it was interest paid to the Trust Fund, and 80 billion was excess payroll taxes: 13% of total collections.6

Tossed into the general budget, the 2006 surplus easily financed the Department of Education budget (67 billion),7 with plenty left to pay for the Administration for Children and Families (47 billion).

ACF, by the way, is welfare, Head Start, child support enforcement,* adoption assistance, foster care, child care, community block grants, energy assistance, and programs for the mentally retarded, refugees, and Native Americans.8

That’s how big the yearly Social Security surplus is.

Alternatively, the 2006 surplus would fund about a year of the war in Iraq. That’s how big the war budget is.9

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. K n R

[madrchsod]

9. he also created the trial lawyer system we have today...

[rhett o rick]

10. I heard that. Do you have a good link for more info? nm

[madrchsod]

17. i heard that on norman goldman and there`s another list next week

[rhett o rick]

18. I also heard it on Norman Goldman. nm

[IDemo]

11. Doubt they'd have any problem with #9

[progressoid]

61. Or # 8.

Hell, Ollie North is a freakin hero to them.

[WillyT]

13. K & R !!!

:kick:

[underpants]

16. Not sure if it was the same anti-Apartheid act but Dick Cheney (R- Wy) voted to keep Mandela in jail

One particular sticking point that has caused Cheney much anxiety is his voting record pertaining to the aggressively anti-democratic and blatantly racist apartheid regime in South Africa.

Cheney demonstrated opposition toward the individual who received the admiration of democratic forces throughout the world, Nelson Mandela.

Congress with bipartisan support passed a resolution calling on the South African government to free Nelson Mandela from prison. It was supported widely by the international community but opposed by Dick Cheney.

Newt Gingrich conceded that Cheney's congressional voting record was to the right of his own, which was certainly no mean feat. This now great admirer of freedom when it is linked to his global aspirations in the Middle East showed no such concern when it came to the black majority in South Africa.

While supporting apartheid in South Africa and denying Mandela his support, Cheney proved to be a stalwart opponent of freedom and equal opportunities for minorities in America as well. Cheney voted in 1983 against authorizing a program designed to help local school districts offset the cost of desegregating public schools.

Cheney voted to sustain President Ronald Reagan's veto of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987. In 1988 he voted against Hate Crimes Data Legislation. The legislation provided for the collection and publication of information regarding acts of violence linked to racial, religious, ethnic, or gender prejudices.

http://www.ocnus.net/cgi-bin/exec/view.cgi?archive=98&num=25092&printer=1

[rhett o rick]

23. He has my vote for the most evil man in America. nm

[madrchsod]

19. number 10--charlie wilson`s war.

i doubt reagan had any idea what was happening...seems there were a lot of people who did`t have a clue. according to wilson the cia-us army did`t want wilson to arm the Afghans with stingers but wilson went right to reagan for his signature. the stringers turned the tide in the war.

[WinkyDink]

20. They might like that he visited Bitburg's S.S. cemetery (and I don't mean Social Security).

[Blue-Jay]

22. Reagan didn't run from terrorists.

He conspired with them.

But at least he told Gorby to tear down a wall that was already being torn down. That took some guts.

[jmowreader]

27. Oh, you mean a wall Gorby couldn't have torn down if he wanted to?

The dictator he needed to tell to tear the wall down was East Germany's Erich Honecker...who, coincidentally, was the guy who actually built the fucking thing. (He was Secretary for Security Matters in the German Socialist Unity Party's Central Committee when the Wall went up.)

[Shining Jack]

24. K&R

[66 dmhlt]

25. It's just too pithy NOT to share

Granted - it's overkill ... but I'm willing to take your slings & arrows.

[Rozlee]

32. LOL. I love it. Just e-mailed it to my winger sister. n/t.

:hi:

[InvisibleTouch]

67. This is great, thanks! n/t

[duhneece]

28. I'd been looking for a good summary

And there you were. Thanks!

[duhneece]

29. Reagan Cared more about UFO than AIDS

"...Ronald Reagan claimed to have seen UFOs on at least two occasions, according to reports from sources as disparate as the Wall Street Journal..."


http://letters.salon.com/politics/war_room/2011/02/04/reagan_aides_ufos/view/

[Imagevision]

46. k&r!

[JanMichael]

30. Add that he tried to join the CP-USA but was rejected...too phony. nt

[chat_noir]

31. Reagan sold WMDs to Saddam Hussein to use on Iran

"dual use"

[Liberty Belle]

33. Reagan tried to eliminate Bureau of Indian Affairs and denigrated Native Americans:

Details here, lots of examples:

http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/3351

and here:

http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/3306

Locally our tribal leaders derailed a school district's plan to name a high school after Reagan. The District didn't dare proceed, since the Indians own a casino and are among the biggest donors to the District. Had this not been retracted, I suspect you'd have seen the tribes use the billboards they own along local freeways to back rival school board members in the next election.

[underseasurveyor]

42. Oh god shame on me

I forgot all about that. :spank:

I just can't keep up any more :-(

[Lydia Leftcoast]

34. Supported repressive forces against popular uprisings in Central America

He supported the brutal right-wing dictatorship in El Salvador and undermined the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, who were actually trying to improve ordinary people's lives.

[The Straight Story]

35. So are we saying he was a liberal and I should like him???? (nt)

[JHB]

56. I think the point is more about up-smacking the image of Reagan...

...that RWers have in their heads. And the heads of people who go along with the RWers on this as the path of least resistance.

[Mosaic]

36. HA! Excellent!

Who gives a shit what they want. Good list, spread it all over the internet. Print it and spread it everywhere.

[creeksneakers2]

37. You're right about the unemployment

Average unemployment through Reagan's two terms was higher than Carter's average. It wasn't until Reagan's sixth or seventh year in office that he got unemployment back to where it was under Carter. I've told conservatives this and they refuse to believe it, but its right there in the Labor Department's official stats.

[rhett o rick]

40. Give ThinkProgress credit for the article. nm

[mistertrickster]

38. His CIA mined harbors

In Jan. 1984, mines were laid in Sandino harbor in Nicaragua, accompanied by other mine-layings, sabotage of Sandanista communications, and destruction of an arms depot. In April, it was disclosed that the CIA had conducted the action, and a Senate resolution condemned the mining 84-12.

The mines were designed primarily to damage and scare off ships rather than destroy them, but they were a clear violation of international law. The Sandanistas took their case to the International Court of Justice in the Hague (popularly known as the World Court) and won, though the administration refused in advance to recognize the court’s jurisdiction. The mining of the harbors was an example of “force against another state,” the court said; US support of the contras “amounts to an intervention of one state in he internal affairs of the other.”

By 1984 the contras had become an end in themselves. Loyalty to the contras had become the litmus test for loyalty to “Reagan’s policy” among conservatives.


http://www.issues2000.org/celeb/Ronald_Reagan_Foreign_Policy.htm

******

Nowadays, we call that "state sponsored terrorism."

[Tuesday Afternoon]

39. K&R and bkmrkd

[Kurovski]

41. People who believe jesus rode a dinosaur have no earthly idea of what

Reagan did or didn't do. It just doesn't matter. 30% of the country will believe anything they're told by the right kind of crazy jerkoff who can simper "Gawd bless America" twenty fucking times a day.

But K&R for the non-brain-dead who can still be reached with reason. :D

[GreenTea]

43. Reagan was a workers nightmare-He busted their unions, rasied their taxes-The rich received huge

tax cuts _ Reagan was a typical republican hypocrite a liar, a hater of the poor and workers....No different than Bush or any other greedy, hateful selfish lying republican corporatist! Just like the republican liar pigman Limbaugh and all the rest of the greedy lying republican thieves!

[LaPera]

44. Reagan was a complete asshole - I lived under his lying facist bullshit for 16 years.

As CA Governor Reagan was a fucking nightmare a complete disaster.

[dotymed]

55. Unfortunately, for us,

We are still living under "his lying fascist bullshit."
He permanently changed the laws and the rules to benefit the wealthy and to relegate the majority of Americans to serf status. Every President since reagan has "went along" with these Fascist decrees and furthered the stranglehold on the (non) working person.
That is why I am advocating a
Peaceful Revolution, building on the momentum of the victories of the recent M.E. countries (Egypt, Tunisia, etc..), we ned to "strike while the iron is hot", to at least restore our country to pre-Reagan laws and regulations (ie..The Fairness Doctrine).
Amazingly (to me) not many people on DU think that is a good idea.
I must be the lone nut.

[Imagevision]

45. Meanwhile today Palin is preaching America Is Out Of Step With Reagan's Values

[Ticonderoga]

59. Reagan had values? Really?

Reagan was was a traitor to the United States. See Iran-Contra.

[deacon]

47. He was no hero. n/t

[Hannah Bell]

48. 11. reagan was a government informer who spied on his coworkers.

12. reagan's career in its beginnings was due to mafia ties.

13. under his direction as president of the screen actors' guild it voted in a loyalty oath.

http://www.mercurynews.com/scott-herhold/ci_16683525.

http://www.moldea.com/ReaganRedux.html

[miyazaki]

72. Yep, ratted out fellow actors. An old time actor friend of

my mothers used to curse his name occasionally. They
hated his fucking guts.

[B Calm]

51. Reagan was a CHICKENHAWK who avoided WW2

[Crowman1979]

52. He was complicit in the slaughter of thousands of civilians in central america.

[griloco]

53. Who doesn't belong: Hitler, Noriega, Saddam, Osama?

Hitler.
All the rest were friends of Reagan

[Name removed]

54. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Avant Guardian]

57. More like, 'Ten things conservatives DONT KNOW about Reagan'

They know none of this stuff.

[rhett o rick]

70. I think the point is that they dont want to know. Ignorance is bliss. nm

[catzies]

60. Um, #5? Wait, what?

Did you mean "Did little to fight FOR a woman's right to choose??
:shrug:

[mdmc]

62. no - he had no action

allowing the GOP to use the issue as a rally point.
GHWB did about the same thing..

[rhett o rick]

65. From thinkprogress.org

"As governor of California in 1967, Reagan signed a bill to liberalize the state’s abortion laws that “resulted in more than a million abortions.” When Reagan ran for president, he advocated a constitutional amendment that would have prohibited all abortions except when necessary to save the life of the mother, but once in office, he “never seriously pursued” curbing choice."

[catzies]

68. Oh, ok. I get it now. thanks for the clarification. n/t

[avaistheone1]

63. k&r

[W T F]

64. Yes BUT.............

HE HAS AN "R" NEXT TO HIS NAME!..........So it's OK

[Sugarcoated]

69. DAMN

Wish I could rec this!