It’s
time Republicans laid former President Reagan to rest and stop invoking his
name as the hero and shining light of being a Republican.
What worked in Reagan's time wouldn't work today.
Former
President Ronald Reagan died June 5,
2004 leaving behind a legacy that many Republicans use as the guiding principles for their party. It also led to Republicans having selective
memory when it comes to the Reagan legacy. Republicans use Reagan’s name as
the be all and end all when it comes to what the GOP should be. However it has led
some Republicans to concede that Reagan couldn’t make it as
GOP’er in today's party.
When Republicans look back at the Reagan presidency
selective memory is front and center, here are seven legacies they don’t want to
talk about or remember.
1. Reagan was a big fan of FDR.
Though Reagan famously
quipped, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are
'I'm from the government and I'm here to help,'" he admired Franklin
Delano Roosevelt, who arguably did more to expand the role of government than
any other American leader. Reagan voted
for FDR all four times and called him "one of
history's truly monumental figures." It would be hard to find a GOP
candidate today willing to admit a similar admiration for Roosevelt.
2. Reagan increased tax 11 times
during his presidency.
Reagan was not afraid to raise taxes. As governor
of California, he signed the largest
tax increase in the history of any state at that time. Though it's true
that under President Reagan, the top income tax rate decreased from roughly 70
percent to 28 percent, taxes increased 11
times during his tenure. As Professor Douglas Brinkley, author of The Reagan
Diaries, said in a 2011 NPR interview, "There's
a false mythology out there about Reagan as this conservative president who
came in and just cut taxes and trimmed federal spending in a dramatic way. It
didn't happen that way."
3. Reagan increased spending and
expanded the federal government.
Reagan did not reduce the size of the government
during his tenure. Annual federal spending during his terms averaged 22.4
percent of the gross domestic product, which is greater than the 20.8
percent average under President Jimmy Carter. As then-Slate editor Michael
Kinsley once noted, the federal government's spending increased by 25
percent in real terms from the time Reagan entered office to the time he
left. During the same time, the federal civilian workforce grew from 2.8
million to 3 million.
4. Reagan gave amnesty to three
million illegal aliens.
Reagan signed a 1986 law granting
amnesty to three million undocumented immigrants. Anyone who came to the
U.S. prior to 1982 was eligible for the amnesty. The comprehensive legislation
also mandated tighter security along the Mexican border and provided for
penalties on employers who hired immigrants without papers. This still isn’t to
this date being enforced.
5. Reagan tripled the national
debt.
Reducing the National Debt is now a goal of Republicans , but during the Reagan presidency, the national
debt tripled -- from $995
billion to $2.9 trillion. In a 1998 book, Richard Darman, the former
president's adviser, declared, "In the Reagan years, more
federal debt was added than in the entire prior history of the United
States."
6. Reagan's Supreme Court
appointee Sandra Day O'Connor saved abortion rights.
7. Reagan negotiated with
terrorists.
In the Iran-Contra scandal, Reagan went where
Republicans would scream to the high heavens today: He negotiated with
terrorists. Trying to free
American hostages held by Iranian terrorists in Lebanon, Reagan violated
the U.S. embargo and secretly sold weapons to Iran. The funds from selling
those weapons were then used to support the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. Tom
Brokaw argues that Iran-Contra
was a far greater scandal than those now facing President Barack Obama.
Is negotiating with a terrorist group to free Americans a greater scandal than spying on Americans or the murder of an American Ambassador?
