There was an interesting piece by David Leohardt in the March 23 New York Times in which he outlines how the passage of the healthcare bill has allowed President Obama to begin to attack the wealth inequity of our nation that was begun under Ronald Reagan.
It’s about time.
The economic policies that began under Reagan led to the collapse of our economy just two years ago. His policies, and all republican policies since, have been monumental failures because they were built on a false premise. "Trickle down" economics does not exist, and it never did. It is simply the transfer of wealth from the middle class to the rich. David Stockman, Reagan's budget manager, admitted it was not just a flawed theory, but a fraudulent one, designed to line the pockets of Reagan's rich friends . . . and Reagan and everyone else knew it. They wrapped it in a pretty package, and despite seeing their own incomes and benefits devastated as a result, many people continued (and continue today) to vote against their economic self interests, and the economic self interests of our nation.
Reagan is equally responsible for laying every problem our nation faces at the feet of our government. In his first address to Congress, he famously declared that “government is the problem.” He attacked government, as comedian Lewis Black put it, as though it were a gigantic building walking around destroying the country side.
Here’s the predicament: in the United States, the citizens are the government. Effectively, Reagan was claiming that we, the people, are the problem. That’s a hell of a thing for a president to say, and it was also completely wrong. For years U.S. citizens were encouraged to serve their communities and countries as public servants. The idea was for our best and brightest to dedicate some time to the public good before going out and finding their fortune in the private sector. The men and women who answered this call took us to the moon; planned some of the world’s greatest cities; saved us from an extended time in the Pacific during World War II that likely would have cost millions of lives; designed and constructed our interstate transportation system; established and built the information super highway; were the teachers who inspired millions of us to be more than we ever thought we could be; and so much more.
It’s time to end the myth that our government is the problem. When funded and managed properly, our government provides great service to its citizens, and it makes our communities and our nation stronger. Strong government programs do not take away from the free market, but enhances it by assuring there is a level playing field for all participants. A strong government comes to the aid of its citizens, as it did in 1992 following Hurricane Andrew (as opposed to what happened in 2005 under a weak and incompetent government with Hurricane Katrina).
The legacy of Ronald Reagan — less government and tax cuts for the rich — is 30 years of punishment for the great American middle class, 30 years of the rich getting richer, 30 years of severely weakening our national economy (and thus our security) and 30 years of across the board failure in every respect. There is not a single example that policies hatched during the Reagan administration have ever worked, or ever could.
The legacy of Ronald Reagan — less government and tax cuts for the rich — is 30 years of punishment for the great American middle class, 30 years of the rich getting richer, 30 years of severely weakening our national economy (and thus our security) and 30 years of across the board failure in every respect. There is not a single example that policies hatched during the Reagan administration have ever worked, or ever could.
It is long past time for our conservative friends to man up, admit the great damage they have done to our nation and own their collective failure.
