Reagan mythology is leading US off a cliff
Paul Rosenberg of Los Angeles’s Random Lengths News (who, apropos of nothing, looks like “Orson Welles playing a hobo” in Colin’s words) wrote a long opinion piece for Al Jazeera on the deification of Reagonomics in the United States:
Entirely forgetting the real history of how Franklin D Roosevelt used activist government to save American capitalism from itself, the entire US political establishment is instead hypnotised by the false history woven around its most over-hyped president of all time: Ronald Reagan. Idolatry of Reagan’s supposed tax-cutting wonders propels the now widespread economic belief that up is down, that cutting government spending is the way out of – rather than into – a severe recession. At the same time, idolatry of Reagan’s supposed political wonders propels GOP extremists to ignore all other considerations.
He then pretty viciously tears into what he views are myths about Reagan’s economic policies:
The idea that Reagan produced a uniquely booming economy is false
The idea that Reagan brought prosperity is true only for those at the top, not for average American workers
The idea that Reagan was good for the American economy in general is false
The idea that Ronald Reagan consistently opposed tax increases is false
The idea that Reagan’s tax cuts spurred job creation is false
Reagan’s Presidency happened mostly before I was born, and entirely before I understood what a Presidency was, so maybe my outlook would be different if I were twenty-five years older. But I’ve never understood why Reagan is constantly invoked in budget talks these days when he increased the debt, increased federal spending as a percentage of GDP, and increased taxes quite a few times. I’ve always been under the impression as a non-economist that Reaganomics overall did help our economy, if only because it was a change from whatever Ford and Carter did. When you get down to what Reagan actually did and what actually happened to our economy in the ’80s, though, you’ll find it’s a far cry from this mythological interpretation people seem to hold.