President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary
Navy sailors wave American flags as the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier docks at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado, Calif. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and its crew of nearly 5,000 sailors returned to San Diego from a six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf and Western Pacific Ocean. It was the first mission for the ship since being commissioned in 2003.
Nancy Reagan posing with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Grace Kelly (Peter McCoy at far left) during a dinner at Winfield House during trip to London for the Royal Wedding. 7/26/81.
President Reagan’s Address at the Ceremony Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Normandy Invasion, D-day at Point-du-Hoc – 6/6/84.
You will notice that Grace Kelly is pictured above. I got to visit Monaco back in July of 1981 and I saw the outside of her beautiful home. My wife and I love the film “To Catch a Thief,” that stars Cary Grant with Grace Kelly and we watch it several times a year. There are some car race scenes in that movie.
I remember thinking back in 1981 that there were winding roads back up in those hills and I was glad the bus driver knew what he was doing since the views out the window looked pretty scary from those heights. Unfortunately, about a year later on September 14, 1982, Grace Kelly died on one of those same roads.
Have you heard the lie that Presidential policy does not matter, but economic cycles come and go and we can not hold our politicians to blame. Many have said that about the success that Reagan had with the economy in the 1980’s. William A. Niskanen and Stephen Moore have sent the record straight in their October 22, 1996 paper “Supply-Side Tax Cuts and the Truth about the Reagan Economic Record.” I will be sharing portions of that article with you over the next few days.
Here is the myth:
The 1980s Expansion Was a Classic Keynesian Economic Recovery Driven by the Stimulative Effects of High Deficits
Reagan’s economic program actually amounted to the longest and most successful Keynesian recovery the world has yet seen.
If the 1980s expansion had been a classic, demand-driven Keynesian recovery, nominal demand should have grown rapidly in the 1980s. However, as Figure 9 shows, over the course of the 1980s the rate of nominal demand growth fell.
The Keynesian explanation of the economic recovery in the 1980s is also fundamentally inconsistent with the sharpfall in inflation throughout that decade. If the recovery had been driven by a hike in the demand for goods and servicesrather than by a supply-side effect of greater output, inflation would have risen rather than fallen. But it did fall. Thisis why the near-universal predictions by Reagan’s opponents from 1979 to 1981 of higher inflation from tax cutsproved to be entirely misguided.
Finally, if budget deficits are highly stimulative, the post-Reagan period of 1990-95 should have produced strongeconomic growth. The budget deficits of that period were very nearly of the same magnitude as the deficits of 1982-89(4.2 percent of GDP versus 3.9 percent of GDP); in the 1980s, however, we had rapid growth and in the 1990s wehave had anemic growth. The answer seems to be the supply-side effects of tax and regulatory reductions in the 1980s versus the tax hikes and reregulation in the 1990s.
Ronald Reagan roast.
President Reagan talking with Charlton Heston, Lydia Heston, Ricardo Montalban and Georgina Montalban at a Dinner at Bloomingdale residence in Beverly Hills, California. 8/19/81
President and Nancy Reagan posing with Sylvester Stallone and Brigitte Nielsen during a state dinner for Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore. 10/8/85
Nancy Reagan photo with Lab School Honorees Tom Cruise, Bruce Jenner, Cher and Robert Rauchenberg in State Dining Room. 10/30/85
Little known presidential facts:
The capital of Liberia is called Monrovia after President James Monroe.k
In 1978, President Jimmy Carter, the first Southerner elected to the presidency following the Civil War, restored U.S. citizenship to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America.i
Samuel Mudd, the doctor who treated the broken ankle of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth and whose name led to the saying “Your name is mud,” received a presidential pardon in 1869 from Ulysses S. Grant.i
President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary
Son Michael Reagan says: “Everybody wants to be, ‘I’m the next Reagan.’ We ought to just be happy we had a Ronald Reagan.”
President Reagan with Charlton Heston at a meeting with the Presidential Task Force on the Arts and Humanities in the cabinet room. 6/15/81
This is a commercial from the 1950’s with Ronald Reagan. In this commercial he explains the evils of socialized medicine. How it can lead to total socialism, even back in the 50’s people were worried about what the government was trying to do with universal health care.
In the above picture you see Reagan with his good friend Charlton Heston. My wife Jill in 1992 was in charge of giving out signs for the Bush campaign. She was constantly going to political events. Mike Huckabee invited her over when he had Charlton Heston over to raise funds for him during his run for Senate. Jill had her picture taken with Moses, but Moses was unable to provide a miracle victory for Huckabee.
A few days later I saw Huckabee in Little Rock at a Baskin Robbins during his race for Lt. Governor, and he said he felt real good about his chances to win. Of course, the rest is history.
I have heard a lot of things said about the Reagan economic policies and many of them are not true. People want to go back and change history and instead they want to invent history. William A. Niskanen and Stephen Moore have sent the record straight in their October 22, 1996 paper “Supply-Side Tax Cuts and the Truth about the Reagan Economic Record.” I will be sharing portions of that article with you over the next few days.
Here is the first myth that must be destroyed:
Clinton’s Economic Record Has Outperformed Reagan’s
Our economy is the soundest it’s been in a generation.
The growth rate under Clinton has been 2.7 percent, half a percent below the 3.2 percent growth rate under Reagan
and a full percentage point below the 3.8 percent growth rate during the 1983-89 expansion. Standard government forecasts predict a 2-2.5 percent growth rate through the end of the decade. Yet, if even the high end of that forecast proves to be accurate, the 1990s will be the lowest economic growth decade since the Great Depression and the second lowest in the 20th century.
President Reagan meeting with 1981 Miss Universe Shawn Weatherly and 1981 Miss USA Kim Seel Brede in the oval office. 6/30/81.
President and Nancy Reagan with Ray Charles after acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Dallas, Texas. 8/23/84.
President Reagan presents Mother Teresa with the Medal of Freedom at a White House Ceremony. 6/20/85.
Little known facts about our presidents:
On his epitaph, which he composed, Jefferson mentions that he was the author of the Declaration of Independence and the Statuette of Virginia for Religious Freedom and that he was the father of the University of Virginia. He neglected to mention he had been the President of the United States.g
Teddy Roosevelt’s last request before dying was “Please put out the light.” Thomas Jefferson’s last words were “This is the Fourth?” John Adam’s dying words were “Thomas Jefferson still survives,” unaware that Jefferson had passed away a few hours earlier.k
George Washington had to borrow $600 to get to his own inauguration
George Washington didn’t have enough money to get to his own inauguration so he had to borrow $600 from his neighbor.i
Washington, Jackson, Van Buren, Taylor, Fillmore, Lincoln, A. Johnson, Cleveland, and Truman did not attend college. Harry Truman is the only twentieth-century president without a college degree.b
Francis Schaeffer points out how Communism is based on materialism which leads to repression while countries with a reformation base truly have a solid basis for law and the people enjoy freedom.
Series on young people’s attitudes towards Socialism and Communism part 1
On the Arkansas Times Blog on April 1, 2010 the Arkansas Times staff noted that the Tea Party group in Little Rock were made up of “angry people who were there took turns bulling on a bullhorn and carried signs with messages like Just Say No To Socialism.”
Today, many people like to picture conservatives that oppose socialism as angry and ignorant nuts. Today in our colleges you will find that image put forth by many professors. Socialism and even at times Communism is put in a good light.
I am going to start a series today that will attempt to explain why communism and socialism is very appealing to young people, but today I also wanted to talk also about the reformation base that our country was built on.
Bradley Gitz had an excellent article “Socialist Comeback,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, January 30, 2011. Here is what he had to say:
The collapse of the Soviet Union was assumed to have meant the end of socialism as a viable political ideology.
That obituary appears to have been premature. Socialism not only didn’t die but it continues to exert a powerful appeal, particularly among the young and idealistic (an overlapping constituency).
The source of that appeal is not difficult to identify, residing as it does in socialism’s promise to satisfy basic human needs and usher in a classless utopia of equality and plenty.
Socialism appeals today for the same reasons it appealed in the time of Marx and Engels-because it suggests a better world. Capitalism might be the superior system in terms of generating wealth, but its dependence upon profits and self-interest means it will never be able to occupy the moral high ground.
In some respects, the virtual disappearance of communism as the logical extrapolation of the socialist ideal may have saved other forms of socialism. Few could have plausibly argued that communist societies were superior to capitalist democracies at the time the Berlin Wall was falling and Chinese demonstrators were erecting their papier-mâché statue of liberty in Tiananmen Square.
No one on the left wanted to compare East Germany to West Germany or North Korea to South Korea, let alone America to the Soviet Union. The failed Soviet experiment was a giant millstone around the neck of the left, dragging down the original vision of socialism as “the future that works.”
Gitz brings up the issue of oppression. How you ever wondered why communist countries have to operate on that basis?Let’s first take a look at the foundation that our country was built on and see if we can find any differences.
Our country was founded on a reformation base.
Notice in the video above is from the episode “The Revolutionary Age” from the film series “How Should We Then Live?” by Francis Schaeffer that a system like communism is based on a materialistic base, and must use internal repression to keep in power. Communism always comes in with promises, but what you end up with is a loss of freedom of the press and freedom of religion too. This can be seen even today in the 5 communist countries which exist. However, when you contrast these communist countries to those countries that have a reformation base you find a large difference in protection of human rights.
Francis Schaeffer has pointed out that in these countries (with the reformation base ) the biblical basis did give absolutes upon which to combat injustice. In contrast, the humanist has no way to say that certain things are right and certain things are wrong. This is because for the humanist the final thing that exists is the impersonal universe and that is silent and neutral about right and wrong and about cruelty and noncruelty.
However, our public schools in the USA are just as humanistic as they are in communist countries. This is seen by the teaching of humanism in the area of moral choices. Our students are being taught that we all are a product of chance and there are no absolutes.
The Bible tells us, “{God} has also set eternity in the hearts of men…” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV). The secularist calls this an illusion, but the Bible tells us that the idea that we will survive the grave was planted in everyone’s heart by God Himself. Romans 1:19-21 tells us that God has instilled a conscience in everyone that points each of them to Him and tells them what is right and wrong (also Romans 2:14 -15).
It’s no wonder, then, that a humanist would comment, “Certain moral truths — such as do not kill, do not steal, and do not lie — do have a special status of being not just ‘mere opinion’ but bulwarks of humanitarian action. I have no intention of saying, ‘I think Hitler was wrong.’ Hitler WAS wrong.” (Gloria Leitner, “A Perspective on Belief,” THE HUMANIST, May/June 1997, pp. 38-39)
Here Leitner is reasoning from her God-given conscience and not from humanist philosophy. However, I know how moral relativism works, and I expected that Mrs. Leitner would soon be challenged by her fellow humanists. It wasn’t long before she received criticism. Humanist Abigail Ann Martin responded, “Neither am I an advocate of Hitler; however, by whose criteria is he evil?” (THE HUMANIST, September/October 1997, p. 2)
Do you see where our moral relativism has taken us in the USA?
I had a chance back in 1991 to visit with a gentleman by the name of Robert Lester Mondale while he was retired in Missouri. He was born on May 28, 1904 and he died on August 19, 2003. He was an Unitarian minister and a humanist. In fact, he was the only person to sign all three of the Humanist Manifestos of 1933, 1973 and 2003. In my conversation with him he mentioned that he had the opportunity to correspond with John Dewey who was one of Mondale’s fellow signers of the 1933 Humanist Manifesto I.
I really believe that the influence of John Dewey’s humanistic philosophy has won the battle of the textbooks in the USA today (with evolution teaching being a key component). As a result, we have people like humanist Abigail Ann Martin who wrote, “Neither am I an advocate of Hitler; however, by whose criteria is he evil?”
Socialism and Communism do have lots of promises that entice young people, but eventually the freedoms of people may be compromised down the road, and those promises are not fulfilled.
President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary
Ronald Reagan salutes members of the Reserve Officers Association in 1988.
President Reagan and Nancy Reagan receiving a baseball from Frank Sinatra during a meeting with the 1981 National Multiple Sclerosis Society Mother and Father of the Year in the oval office. 6/3/81.
President Reagan’s remarks during the 1984 National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony.
Nancy Reagan with Dinah Shore and Burt Reynolds in the Blue Room during a state dinner for Premier Zhao Ziyang of the Peoples Republic of China. 1/10/84.
I remember going down to the Robinson Center in Little Rock back around 1995 to see “An evening with Burt Reynolds.” It was very enjoyable as Reynolds told stories about his life. One story I found very funny was the night that Frank Sinatra took Reynolds out to a restaurant. Dinah Shore was a longtime friend of Sinatra and he always wanted to protect her. He had a talk with Reynolds and he wanted to know Reynolds intentions.
Before the evening started, Reynolds told Dinah that he was not going to stay out late with Sinatra and he was going to leave after he got his “Sinatra story.” Well, Sinatra was served in a private room in the back of his favorite restaurant and there was a server who was nervous and he spilled some soup at Sinatra’s table. The owner came out and fired the server on the spot. Sinatra responded, “Everytime I come back here in the future, I better see this particular server working here or I will never come back again.”
Reynolds got up from the table and started to leave. Sinatra said, “Where are you going?” Reynolds said he was leaving because he told Dinah he would be back as soon as he got a “Sinatra story” and now he had one.
No matter how advocates of big government try to rewrite history, Ronald Reagan’s record of fiscal responsibility continues to stand as the most successful economic policy of the 20th century. His tax reforms triggered an economic expansion that continues to this day. His investments in national security ended the Cold War and made possible the subsequent defense spending reductions that are largely responsible for the current federal surpluses. His efforts to restrain the expansion of federal government helped to limit the growth of domestic spending.
If Reagan’s critics had been willing to work with him to limit domestic spending even further and to control the growth of entitlements, the budget would have been balanced five to ten years sooner and without the massive tax increase imposed in 1993. Today, Members of Congress from across the political spectrum should stand on the evidence and defend the Reagan record.
To the extent that President Bush’s proposals mirror those of Ronald Reagan, his plan should be a welcome strategy to lower the tax burden on Americans and to make the system more responsible. If the advocates of big government in Congress cooperate with President Bush rather than merely continuing to fund obsolete, wasteful, and redundant programs, there is no limit to the prosperity that Americans can generate.
Peter Sperry is the Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
President Reagan meeting with Henry Kissinger in the residence. 6/10/81.
Little known facts about our presidents:
At 325 pounds, William Howard Taft (1857-1930), who was dubbed “Big Bill,” was the largest president in American history and often got stuck in the White House bathtub. His advisors had to sometimes pull him out.b
Warren Harding once lost priceless White House China playing poker
Harding was obsessed with poker and once bet an entire set of priceless White House China and lost it.k
During his second run for presidency, Teddy Roosevelt was shot by a would-be assassin while giving a speech in Milwaukee. He continued to deliver his speech with the bullet in his chest.i
Thomas Jefferson was convinced that if he soaked his feet in a bucket of cold water every day, he’d never get a cold.k
Calvin Coolidge liked to have his head rubbed with petroleum jelly while eating his breakfast in bed.b
Woodrow Wilson (born Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 1856-1924) would paint his golf balls black during the winter so he could continue playing in the snow.a
President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary
Nancy Reagan pauses, then kisses her husband’s casket, just before it was taken from the Capitol Rotunda to Washington National Cathedral for a state funeral.
President Reagan addressing the crowd during Ford Theatre’s Gala, “The Stars Salute the President,” with Nancy Reagan, Tony Bennett, Lynda Carter, Rodney Dangerfield, Luciano Pavarotti, Jack Klugman, Victoria Principal, and George Benson. 3/21/81.
In a world of political correctness and Christmas culture wars, Reagan’s national address is almost unbelievable! It is a breath of fresh Christmas air! What happened to the politicians like him who are not afraid to hold fast to the Christian faith despite what others think or say about their Christmas beliefs? (12-23-81 Christmas address by Reagan)
President Reagan posing with Kirk Douglas and his wife Anne Buydens at a private dinner at Eldorado Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California. 12/30/87.
I have a story to tell about Kirk Douglas. A good friend of mine was the pastor at a small church in Fillmore, California several years ago. He said back in 1995 Fillmore’s Towne Theater was restored with the help of Kirk Douglas. It is the only movie house in the town and it only has one screen. Several of my friend”s church members told him that they would notice at times that after a movie would start they would notice Kirk Douglas sneaking in about 5 minutes after the movie would start.
Despite the steep recession in 1982–brought on by tight money policies that were instituted to squeeze out the historic inflation level of the late 1970s–by 1983, the Reagan policies of reducing taxes, spending, regulation, and inflation were in place. The result was unprecedented economic growth:
This economic boom lasted 92 months without a recession, from November 1982 to July 1990, the longest period of sustained growth during peacetime and the second-longest period of sustained growth in U.S. history. The growth in the economy lasted more than twice as long as the average period of expansions since World War II.10
The American economy grew by about one-third in real inflation-adjusted terms. This was the equivalent of adding the entire economy of East and West Germany or two-thirds of Japan’s economy to the U.S. economy.11
From 1950 to 1973, real economic growth in the U.S. economy averaged 3.6 percent per year. From 1973 to 1982, it averaged only 1.6 percent. The Reagan economic boom restored the more usual growth rate as the economy averaged 3.5 percent in real growth from the beginning of 1983 to the end of 1990.12
HOW DID REAGAN’S POLICIES AFFECT THE FEDERAL TAX BURDEN?
Perhaps the greatest myth concerning the 1980s is that Ronald Reagan slashed taxes so dramatically for the rich that they no longer have paid their fair share. The flaw in this myth is that it mixes tax rateswith taxes actually paid and ignores the real trend of taxation:
In 1991, after the Reagan rate cuts were well in place, the top 1 percent of taxpayers in income paid 25 percent of all income taxes; the top 5 percent paid 43 percent; and the bottom 50 percent paid only 5 percent.13 To suggest that this distribution is unfair because it is too easy on upper-income groups is nothing less than absurd.
The proportion of total income taxes paid by the top 1 percent rose sharply under President Reagan, from 18 percent in 1981 to 28 percent in 1988.14
Average effective income tax rates were cut even more for lower-income groups than for higher-income groups. While the average effective tax rate for the top 1 percent fell by 30 percent between 1980 and 1992, and by 35 percent for the top 20 percent of income earners, it fell by 44 percent for the second-highest quintile, 46 percent for the middle quintile, 64 percent for the second-lowest quintile, and 263 percent for the bottom quintile.15
These reductions for the lowest-income groups were so large because President Reagan doubled the personal exemption, increased the standard deduction, and tripled the earned income tax credit (EITC), which provides net cash for single-parent families with children at the lowest income levels. These changes eliminated income tax liability altogether for over 4 million lower-income families.16
Critics often add in the Social Security payroll tax and argue that the total federal tax burden shifted more to lower-income groups and away from upper-income groups; but President Reagan’s changes were in the income tax, not in the Social Security payroll tax. The payroll tax was imposed by proponents of big government over the past 50 years, and it is they, not Ronald Reagan, who should be held accountable for its distributional effects.
Nevertheless, even if one counts the Social Security payroll tax, the share of total federal taxes increased between 1980 and 1989 for the following groups:
For the top 1 percent of taxpayers, from 12.9 percent in 1980 to 15.4 percent in 1989;
For the top 5 percent of taxpayers, from 27.3 percent in 1980 to 30.4 percent in 1989; and
For the top 20 percent of taxpayers, from 56.1 percent in 1980 to 58.6 percent in 1989.
On the other hand, the share of total federal taxes, if one includes the Social Security payroll tax, declined for four groups:
For the second-highest 20 percent of taxpayers, from 22.2 percent in 1980 to 20.8 percent in 1989;
For the middle 20 percent of taxpayers, from 13.2 percent in 1980 to 12.5 percent in 1989;
For the second-lowest 20 percent of taxpayers, from 6.9 percent in 1980 to 6.4 percent in 1989; and
For the lowest 20 percent of taxpayers, from 1.6 percent in 1980 to 1.5 percent in 1989.17
Nancy Reagan with Prince Charles before a private dinner for the Prince of Wales at the White House. 5/2/81.
(Little known facts about our presidents) An anarchist and lawyer named Charles Guiteau shot James Garfield in the back with a five-barrel, .44-caliber pistol called a British Bulldog in 1881. He said he chose the gun because it would look good on a display in a museum someday. No one currently knows where the gun is.b
The first attempt to assassinate a president was on Andrew Jackson by Richard Lawrence, a house painter. Both of his guns misfired, however—an event that statisticians say could occur only once in 125,000 times. Andrew Jackson then chased Lawrence with his walking stick.j
James Garfield didn’t die from the gunshot wounds from his assassin’s gun; he died of blood poisoning after doctors and experts (including Alexander Graham Bell) tried to remove the bullet from his back with their dirty fingers and instruments, causing him to linger in pain for 80 days before dying. His assassin, Charles Guiteau, later claimed that he didn’t kill the president, the doctors had.i
After this week’s elections, the Democratic Party barely holds a presence in the region outside of majority-black urban areas such as Atlanta and Memphis. The carnage for the party was particularly brutal in the Deep South, where just one white Democrat survived across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina…
“Right now in most of Dixie it is culturally unacceptable to be a Democrat. It’s a damn shame, but that’s the way it is,” said Dave “Mudcat” Saunders, a campaign strategist for conservative Democrats such as Jim Webb of Virginia, one of the few remaining Southern Democratic senators.
The losses were particularly disappointing for the party after the baby steps it made in the South in 2006 and 2008, when it picked up a host of Republican-leaning House districts and won Senate seats in North Carolina and Virginia. Many thought the party had learned its lessons and had begun to reverse recent history by nominating conservative candidates who hit the right notes on divisive social issues such as abortion and smaller government.
None of it mattered Tuesday.
Democrats didn’t just see most of their recent gains obliterated, they lost at least 19 Southern House members and a senator, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas. Even some of the most conservative Democrats such as four-term Rep. Jim Marshall of Georgia and 10-term Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi couldn’t withstand the wave. It also snared such veterans as John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina, the 14-term chairman of the House Budget Committee, and 14-term Rep. Rick Boucher of Virginia…
Most of the losing Democrats this year were moderates representing Republican-leaning districts. And the challenges could get even tougher for Southern Democrats as legislatures begin redrawing congressional districts from the 2010 census.
Mark Pryor said on Arkansas Week in Review which was broadcast on AETN on Dec 24th, “We owe the American people good government and to try and be productive. I think one reason why you saw the elections turn out the way they turned this November was because I think people all across America feel like the folks inside the beltway are not listening. I try to listen and to be home as much as I possibly can.”
Senator Pryor claims to be listening to the people back home. Evidently the reason most of these Democrats in the south are losing is very simple. They do not represent the conservative values of the people in the south. Is Senator Pryor listening to the people of Arkansas who have voted against every Democrat in 2010 that wished to represent them in Washington. Did the people of Arkansas want Obamacare? The verdict is clear from the results in 2010 that they did not. Take a look at my earlier post where I show he ignored what the people thought and voted with his liberal northern senator friends.
I really did have a fondness in my heart for these old school Hollywood actors of long ago. I still tape the Bob Hope Road movies and watch them from time to time.
In 1977, two huge events made national news at the now titled “Danny Thomas Memphis Classic.” First, President Gerald Ford made a hole-in-one during Wednesday’s Celebrity Pro-Am. That event is now referred to as the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.” Two days later, Al Geiberger shocked the golf world with his record low round of 59 on Friday of the tournament. The 13-under-par round still stands as a PGA TOUR record. (Chip Beck and David Duval have since tied the mark.)
I had the chance to hear the roar that came from the crowd that day that President Ford hit the hole in one (on hole #5 at Colonial Country Club in Cordova, TN). Just a few holes later I saw Danny Thomas walking around saying with slurred speech, :”This is the ball, this is the ball” while he held up a golf ball. I thought he was going to fall on me as he passed by.
Then just two days later I saw the last 5 holes of Al Geiberger’s 59. He was walking around with this silly grin on his face because almost every putt was going in.
What a great group of performers that our country was blessed with. That is why I am including so many pictures on my posts. Enjoy them. (The one on the bottom of the post is one of my favorites.)
HOW DID THE REAGAN TAX CUTS AFFECT THE U.S. TREASURY?
Many critics of reducing taxes claim that the Reagan tax cuts drained the U.S. Treasury. The reality is that federal revenues increased significantly between 1980 and 1990:
Total federal revenues doubled from just over $517 billion in 1980 to more than $1 trillion in 1990. In constant inflation-adjusted dollars, this was a 28 percent increase in revenue.3
As a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP), federal revenues declined only slightly from 18.9 percent in 1980 to 18 percent in 1990.4
Revenues from individual income taxes climbed from just over $244 billion in 1980 to nearly $467 billion in 1990.5 In inflation-adjusted dollars, this amounts to a 25 percent increase.
HOW DID REAGAN’S POLICIES AFFECT FEDERAL SPENDING?
Although critics continue to focus on President Reagan’s budget “cuts,” federal spending rose significantly during the 1980s:
Federal spending more than doubled, growing from almost $591 billion in 1980 to $1.25 trillion in 1990. In constant inflation-adjusted dollars, this was an increase of 35.8 percent.6
As a percentage of GDP, federal expenditures grew slightly from 21.6 percent in 1980 to 21.8 percent in 1990.7
Contrary to popular myth, while inflation-adjusted defense spending increased by 50 percent between 1980 and 1989, it was curtailed when the Cold War ended and fell by 15 percent between 1989 and 1993. However, means-tested entitlements, which do not include Social Security or Medicare, rose by over 102 percent between 1980 and 1993, and they have continued climbing ever since.8
Total spending on all national security programs never equaled domestic spending, even when Social Security, Medicare, and net interest are excluded from domestic totals. In addition, national security spending fell during the Administration of the senior President Bush, while domestic spending increased in both mandatory and discretionary accounts.9
1981 Frank Sinatra’s song for Reagan.
President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary
Former first lady Nancy Reagan watches the casket bearing former president Ronald Reagan be placed on a caisson on Constitution Avenue near the White House. The funeral procession led to the Capitol where he would lie in state. Reagan died June 5, 2004, at the age of 93 after a decade-long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
President Reagan greeting Walter Cronkite for an interview in the Diplomatic Reception room. 3/3/81.
President Reagan and Nancy Reagan attending “All Star Tribute to Dutch Reagan” at NBC Studios(from left to right sitting) Colleen Reagan, Neil Reagan, Maureen Reagan, President, Nancy Reagan, Dennis Revell. (From left to right standing) Emmanuel Lewis, Charlton Heston, Ben Vereen, Monty Hall, Frank Sinatra, Burt Reynolds, Dean Martin, Eydie Gorme, Vin Scully, Steve Lawrence, last 2 unidentified. Burbank, California 12/1/85.
____________________________________________
Little known facts about our presidents:
Thomas Jefferson had a family of plants named after him, Jeffersonia diphylla, which is also known as twin root or rheumatism root.k
Thomas Jefferson wrote “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth,” which was discovered after his death by his daughter. It argues that Jesus Christ was a great thinker, but that he was devoid of other worldly qualities that made him the center of Christianity.k
James Madison (1751-1836) was the shortest president of the United States, standing at only 5’4”. He never weighed more than 100 pounds.j
George Washington made the shortest inauguration speech on record—133 words and less than two minutes long.b
William Harrison served the shortest term of any president
William Henry Harrison (1773-1841) holds the record for the longest inauguration speech in history at 8,578 words long and one hour and 40 minutes. Unfortunately, he gave the speech during bad weather and a month later, he was dead from pneumonia, making his the shortest presidency on record.j
Recently on my series on Ronald Reagan (part 10), a gentleman by the name of Elwood who a regular on the Ark Times Blog site, rightly noted, “Ray-gun created the highest unemployment rate we have yet experienced since Hoover did the honors in the 1930s.”
I responded to him:
Elwood, you were right about Reagan having the largest unemployment figure since the depression.
You have just inspired me to start a series that shows how cutting the top marginal rate on the federal income tax usually results in an expanded economy and lower unemployment. That is exactly what happened during the Reagan years. Reagan’s unemployment figure in 1982 of 9.7% is the largest since the depression (23.6% in 1932). I respect you for your accuracy and research. However, Reagan’s tax cuts changed all that.
Arthur Laffer has noted, “Prior to the tax cut, the economy was choking on high inflation, high Interest rates, and high unemployment. All three of these economic bellwethers dropped sharply after the tax cuts. The unemployment rate, which peaked at 9.7 percent in 1982, began a steady decline, reaching 7.0 percent by 1986 and 5.3 percent when Reagan left office in January 1989.”
Elwood, I follow you on the Arkansas Times Blog. Thank you for taking time to put a comment in here. I really do appreciate it.
I think that I will take a look at Reagan’s policies (mainly tax policies) in the next few weeks. However, I will also include lots of pictures of President Reagan with other famous people, but most enjoyable may be the little known presidential facts I will include about our past presidents. Some of these facts come from Dr. Paul F. Boller, Jr. and his book Presidential Diversion: Presidents at Play from George Washington to George W. Bush. Dr. Boller has corresponded with me several times, and our mutual friend, the late Dr. John George, co-authored with Dr. Boller They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions.
The Real Reagan Economic Record: Responsible and Successful Fiscal Policy
Published on March 1, 2001 by Peter SperryBACKGROUNDER #1414
by Daniel J. Mitchell, Ph.D.
After President George W. Bush sent Congress an outline of his tax reform plan on February 8, some critics immediately began to attack it as a return to what they portray as the fiscally irresponsible policies of the Reagan Administration. According to these commentators, Congress should scale back–if not outright reject–President Bush’s tax reform proposals because they are based on a period when the wealthy received excessive tax cuts and revenue was wasted on defense even though most Americans struggled in poverty. This is a revisionist view of recent history that ignores reality and denies the fact that President Reagan’s sound policies and determination deserve much of the credit for the current economic picture. Congress should embrace President Bush’s tax reform plan as a responsible return to the most successful economic policy of the 20th century.
President Ronald Reagan’s record includes sweeping economic reforms and deep across-the-board tax cuts, market deregulation, and sound monetary policies to contain inflation. His policies resulted in the largest peacetime economic boom in American history and nearly 35 million more jobs. As the Joint Economic Committee reported in April 2000:2
In 1981, newly elected President Ronald Reagan re-focused fiscal policy on the long run. He proposed, and Congress passed, sharp cuts in marginal tax rates. The cuts increased incentives to work and stimulated growth. These were fund-a-mental policy changes that provided the foundation for the Great Expansion that began in December 1982.
Even with the growing surplus, however, a small but vocal faction in Congress opposes any policies that would allow taxpayers to keep more of their own money through real tax cuts and that generally would shift power from the government to the people. This attempt to rewrite history should not be surprising. Proponents of additional government spending try to make the Reagan boom appear to be a bust because they fear that Reagan’s success will help President Bush build popular support for lower taxes, further deregulation, and reduced government spending. But their rhetoric is easily countered by the evidence.
History confirms the soundness of the Reagan, and now Bush, approach to economic policy. Under President Reagan, federal revenues increased even with tax cuts, federal spending did not decrease, the country experienced the longest period of sustained growth during peacetime in its history, and the rich paid more taxes proportionately than they had before the tax cuts were implemented.
Great skit on tonight show on Ronald Reagan by Johnny Carson.
President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary
First lady Nancy Reagan watches as President Reagan is sworn in during his second inauguration in the Rotunda beneath the Capitol dome in Washington. Reagan, forced indoors by a record inaugural freeze, re-enacted his oath-taking.
President Reagan cutting in on Nancy Reagan and Frank Sinatra dancing at the President’s birthday party in the East Room. 2/6/81.
Little known presidential facts:
George Washington, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, James Polk, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, James Garfield, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, Warren Harding, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, and Gerald Ford were all Masons, many symbols of which are found on American currency.i
The body of John Scott Harrison, father of President of Benjamin Harrison, was stolen by grave robbers and sold to Ohio Medical College in Cincinnati for use as a training cadaver. The body was eventually recovered and reburied.k
Gerald Rudolph Ford’s (1913-2006) name before he was adopted was Leslie Lynch King Jr.g
The youngest president was Teddy Roosevelt who became president at age 42 when McKinley (1843-1901) was assassinated. JFK was the youngest president elected at the age of 43.j
As a young man, Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822-1893) fought lyssophobia, or the fear of going insane.k
Three presidents died on July 4th: Thomas Jefferson (1826), John Adams (1826), and James Monroe (1831). Calvin Coolidge is the only president to have been born on the Fourth (1872).h
George Herbert Walker Bush is the only President with four names.k
James Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other hand simultaneously.i
President Reagan, Gerald Ford, and Bob Hope 10/17/81.
You got to check this clip out below of Ronald Reagan and Bob Hope. I will never forget getting to see Bob Hope’s performance in person at Cook Convention Center in 1982. He was originally scheduled to appear at Mud Island but it got rained out. My grandfather, Everette Hatcher Sr. (1903-1988) and I had a great time and we were sitting on about the 5 th row.
Supply-Side Tax Cuts and the Truth about the Reagan Economic Record
by William A. Niskanen and Stephen Moore
Bob Dole’s proposal for a 15 percent income tax cut has reignited the long-standing debate about the economic impact of Reaganomics in the 1980s. This study assesses the Reagan supply-side policies by comparing the nation’s economic performance in the Reagan years (1981-89) with its performance in the immediately preceding Ford-Carter years (1974-81) and in the Bush-Clinton years that followed (1989-95).
On 8 of the 10 key economic variables examined, the American economy performed better during the Reagan years than during the pre- and post-Reagan years.
Real economic growth averaged 3.2 percent during the Reagan years versus 2.8 percent during the Ford-Carter years and 2.1 percent during the Bush-Clinton years.
Real median family income grew by $4,000 during the Reagan period after experiencing no growth in the pre-Reagan years; it experienced a loss of almost $1,500 in the post-Reagan years.
Interest rates, inflation, and unemployment fell faster under Reagan than they did immediately before or after his presidency.
The only economic variable that was worse in the Reagan period than in both the pre- and post-Reagan years was the savings rate, which fell rapidly in the 1980s. The productivity rate was higher in the pre-Reagan years but much lower in the post-Reagan years.
William A. Niskanen is chairman and Stephen Moore is director of fiscal policy studies at the Cato Institute.
This study also exposes 12 fables of Reaganomics, such as that the rich got richer and the poor got poorer, the Reagan tax cuts caused the deficit to explode, and Bill Clinton’s economic record has been better than Reagan’s
Reagan at Bob Hope’s 80th birthday.
President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary
Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, sits alongside President Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan during a fundraising event for the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library at Sen. Edward Kennedy’s home in McLean, Va.
President Reagan talking with Audrey Hepburn and Robert Wolders at a private dinner for the Prince of Wales at the White House. 5/2/81 .
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Little known facts about our presidents
Herbert Clark Hoover (1874-1964) gave his White House servants strict orders to hide from him whenever he passed by. Those who failed to do so were at risk of being fired.g
Lyndon Baines Johnson “LBJ”(1908-1973) affectionately called the many women he slept with his “harem.” He even had a buzzer system installed that rang inside the Oval Office so that Secret Service could warn him when his wife was coming.c
James Buchanan is the only bachelor president. He was virtually inseparable from William R. King (1786-1853), a senator from Alabama, earning the pair the nickname “Miss Nancy and Aunt Fancy” and “Mr. Buchanan and his wife.”c
President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary
In his earliest movies, many of his roles emphasized Reagan’s physical prowess. This is a publicity photo of Ronald Reagan from Warner Brothers/First National Studios.
A :30 commercial for the Ronald Reagan Centennial Celebration.
I remember walking in Austria in 1981 with an elderly man who did not know English but when I told him I was from the USA, he responded, “Jimmy Carter is no good, but Reagan is strong and will stand up to Russia.” He did not say those words in English but another student that was with me was able to interpret at least those words.
Also on the same trip, I got to visit 4 Communist countries and while in Hungry, I heard one of the saddest stories I had ever heard. Our tour guide (who knew 6 languages) spoke to a gentleman who met all of us. This poor man said (in German) that he was married in 1944 to a lady from Hungary who wanted to live by her relatives. He left his homeland of Austria and moved to Hungary. He said that he regretted moving to what would later become a communist country. His relatives in Austria had done really well but he was stuck in a communist country that basically caused everyone to live in poverty.
One of the most treasured items on my office bookshelf is a dedication on a thin pamphlet, published in the Soviet Union in 1990, by one of the top authors of glasnost, political philosopher Igor Klyamkin. I became friends with him in the late 1980s. The dedication reads, in Russian, “To Leon Aron, who understands Ronald Reagan‘s role in our revolution.”
What did Igor mean?
As the Soviet regime was disintegrating, Reagan was the most popular foreign leader in the U.S.S.R., followed by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Partly, of course, this was a tribute to Reagan’s uncanny sense ofrealpolitik: He gave Moscow a cold shoulder when the Soviet regime was at its reactionary worst (post-Afghanistan, 1981-85) and his Strategic Defensive Initiative, derisively described as “Star Wars” by Reagan’s detractors, was a direct challenge to a Soviet leadership that knew it could not technologically match it. SDI undoubtedly contributed to the “new political thinking” in Soviet foreign policy. Yet, Reagan sensed also thatMikhail Gorbachev was a genuine reformer and that a fundamental difference in the regime was underway. Reagan responded by traveling to the Soviet Union in May 1988.
But there was more to it. Far more. Like all great modern revolutions, the Russian revolution from 1987-91 was first and foremost a moral revolution, concerned with human dignity and liberty as its central component. Its mantra was tak dal’she zhit’ nel’zya. “That’s it. We cannot live like this any longer.” This was repeated by theperestroika trio of Gorbachev, Eduard Shevardnadze and Alexander Yakovlev, as well as leading glasnostauthors and millions of rank-and-file men and women. At its essence, this was about the rejection of the moral core of the “old regime” — and Reagan had a magnificent, unerring moral instinct. His clarity of vision and his rhetoric exposed the moral disfigurement of Soviet totalitarianism. This was a charge for which the regime had no answer.
We know of the whispered admiration within the Soviet Union for Reagan’s “empire of evil” speech to the British Parliament in 1983. The dissident and “refusenik” Anatoly Shcharansky, who at the time was imprisoned in the gulag, recalled in his memoirs how the news was spread by Morse code knocks on the walls.
Similarly, Reagan’s famous declaration at the Berlin Wall’s Brandenburg Gate — “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” — was a moral statement because it exposed the key sin of the Soviet regime that no amount of tanks could camouflage: the indignity of holding entire peoples in a cage.
Like all truly great political leaders, at critical moments Ronald Reagan was guided by and openly articulated a profoundly moral judgment of right and wrong, good and evil, liberty and slavery that resonated with tens of millions people in America and abroad. More than anything else, I think, it was this judgment that defined Reagan’s “role” in Russia’s latest revolution of which Igor wrote — and made it so effective.
Leon Aron is resident scholar and director of Russian studies at the American Enterprise Institute. His new book about ideas and ideals that inspired and shaped the 1987-1991 Russian revolution will be published in the fall.
Ronald Reagan tells Soviet jokes told by Soviets themselves.
President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary
His role as halfback George Gipp in the movie Knute Rockne, All American gave Reagan a movie nickname that would last a lifetime.
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Little known facts about our presidents:
John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s (1917-1963) famous inaugural line “Ask not what you your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country” echoes similar directives made by many others, including Cicero, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and President Warren G. Harding, who told the 1916 Republican convention: “We must have a citizenship less concerned about what the government can do for it, and more anxious about what it can do for the nation.”k
Martin Van Buren was the first to be a United States citizen. All previous presidents were born British subjects.g
Six presidents were named James: Madison, Monroe, Polk, Buchanan, Garfield, and Carter.k
President Reagan meeting with 1981 Miss Universe Shawn Weatherly and 1981 Miss USA Kim Seel Brede in the oval office. 6/30/81.
President Reagan and Nancy Reagan greeting Billy Graham at the National Prayer Breakfast held at the Washington Hilton Hotel. 2/5/81.
The Daily Hatch 