Tea Parties: Whats really going on?

[akuma587]

Kasz216 said:

akuma587 said:

Reagan was right to cut taxes because 1) the country was facing staglation, and 2) the tax rates were pretty high.  I am just upset that so many people now think that cutting taxes is the solution to every economic problem.

He was also smart for later passing that tax hike, as the economy had recovered and it would hurt revenue otherwise.  I won't comment on any of the political decisionmaking that went into the decisions, but they were sound economic ones for that time.

But our economic situation wasn't quite so bad during Reagan's second term.  I don't think Reagan's decision to spend money on the Cold War was a foolish one in the same way that Bush's decision to invade Iraq was, I just think it set a bad precedent of excessive military spending.  Reagan's decision was at least a rational one.  But I do question people's belief that the Soviet Union would not have collapsed without that spending.

In terms of modern day, I mean I didn't care as much about Afghanistan (although I certainly wasn't promoting us invading the country) as they were actively housing terrorists involved in 9/11.  That was at least a rational decision in comparison.  Lol, and I don't know if I would call it 9/11 love, more like 9/11 fear.  People were acting so fucking crazy after 9/11 here in the Texas.  They thought terrorists would attack our podunk ass 200,000 person town.  Simply ridiculous.

And if we were concerned about rooting out terrorists in the Middle East who were tied to 9/11, we should have looked at Saudi Arabia too.  But we had too many other kinds of political ties with them for that to be an option (at least in Bush's eyes).

 

But the tax hike was passed during the recession.

In 1982... when the recession was at it's worst.  Furthmore Congress cut government spending.

It's been called the biggest tax hike in US history.

Yeah, but compared to the massiveness of his earlier tax cuts they were not substantial, but you are correct.  I bet most conservatives would say you were lying if you told them that Reagan raised taxes four separate times during his tenure in office.  But it actually shows to me that he wasn't a complete idiot that some liberals make him out to be (well, if you just ignore all that Moral Majority BS).  A true fiscal conservative is not afraid to raise taxes.  I don't understand why so few people understand that these days:

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

Reagan, who never came to terms with this episode of ideological apostasy, persuaded himself that the three-year, $100 billion tax hike--the largest since World War II--was actually "tax reform" that closed loopholes in his earlier cut and therefore didn't count as raising taxes.)

Faced with looming deficits, Reagan raised taxes again in 1983 with a gasoline tax and once more in 1984, this time by $50 billion over three years, mainly through closing tax loopholes for business. Despite the fact that such increases were anathema to conservatives--and probably cost Reagan's successor, George H.W. Bush, reelection--Reagan raised taxes a grand total of four times just between 1982-84.