The GOP's fiscal shift...

VaYank5150

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Aug 3, 2009
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I googled the combination of "deficits dont matter" and Reagan...and came up with this nice snippet:


Quote:
...when Vice President Cheney allegedly declared, "Reagan proved deficits don't matter," he summed up an enduring argument from the former president's economic legacy.

In late 2002, Cheney had summoned the Bush administration's economic team to his office to discuss another round of tax cuts to stimulate the economy. Then-Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill pleaded that the government -- already running a $158 billion deficit -- was careering toward a fiscal crisis. But by O'Neill's account of the meeting, Cheney silenced him by invoking his take on Reagan's legacy.

It wasn't that Reagan's policies proved that government borrowing had no impact on the economy. But his administration's record -- particularly with some years of hindsight -- did give reason to question traditional thinking and provided a new context for future arguments about deficit spending.

"The lesson we should have learned [from those years] is that deficits have little or no short-term economic impacts," said William A. Niskanen, a member of Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers.

As important, they appeared to have no impact politically, said Stephen Moore, a conservative economist at the Club for Growth who worked in Reagan's budget office.

"Voters and politicians became anesthetized to big deficits," Moore recalled. "Reagan was running these big deficits, and liberals argued it was going to be Armageddon. We were going to ruin the economy. Interest rates were going to go through the roof. And none of these things happened."

The fiscal shift in the Reagan years was staggering. In January 1981, when Reagan declared the federal budget to be "out of control," the deficit had reached almost $74 billion, the federal debt $930 billion. Within two years, the deficit was $208 billion. The debt by 1988 totaled $2.6 trillion. In those eight years, the United States moved from being the world's largest international creditor to the largest debtor nation.

To some economists, the impact was clear. Interest rates rose in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the economy slowed, then slipped into recession, and productivity barely advanced. Americans feared their nation had slipped into the shadows of Japan and Germany.

Reagan's "economic policy . . . was a disaster," University of California at Berkeley economic historian J. Bradford DeLong wrote this past weekend on his Web site. "The tax cuts made America a more unequal place, and the deficits slowed economic growth in the 1980s significantly."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A26402-2004Jun8?language=printer
 
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They have not been the real fiscal party for decades.

Only people who love to live in a world constructed of lies bought that bullshit.
 
It's sad that Leftists continue to post stuff about Republicans when the Democrats control the government. Regardless of the purpose, it is interpreted by many as a way to divert attention from the failures of Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress.
 
It's sad that Leftists continue to post stuff about Republicans when the Democrats control the government. Regardless of the purpose, it is interpreted by many as a way to divert attention from the failures of Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress.

Great sarcasm there. too bad I have used my reps for the day.
 
I liked Reagan, and he was a good president. But he's no longer the President and no longer with us.

What is important is not what happened yesterday but what we have learned from it. It seems obvious that those in Washington today have learned nothing. We are spending more and going into deeper debt than ever, And all we hear from those in power is that it is good for us.

Sorry but that dog won't hunt.
 
It's sad that Leftists continue to post stuff about Republicans when the Democrats control the government. Regardless of the purpose, it is interpreted by many as a way to divert attention from the failures of Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress.

Some of us like pointing out the obvious hypocrisy of the right. It tends to show just how partisan they are.
 
It's sad that Leftists continue to post stuff about Republicans when the Democrats control the government. Regardless of the purpose, it is interpreted by many as a way to divert attention from the failures of Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress.

The true Leftist will never find fault in the Democratics...
 
It's sad that Leftists continue to post stuff about Republicans when the Democrats control the government. Regardless of the purpose, it is interpreted by many as a way to divert attention from the failures of Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress.

Some of us like pointing out the obvious hypocrisy of the right. It tends to show just how partisan they are.

While ignoring your own hypocrisy and partisanship...

You're special!
 
As you know, I have you on ignore Dr.House, but since you continue to follow me around an attempt to respond to my posts, I will go ahead and tell you to STFU.
 
It's sad that Leftists continue to post stuff about Republicans when the Democrats control the government. Regardless of the purpose, it is interpreted by many as a way to divert attention from the failures of Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress.

The true Leftist will never find fault in the Democratics...

True righties will never find fault in the Republicans as well.

I think they all suck, but the right does seem a bit more delusional.
 
As you know, I have you on ignore Dr.House, but since you continue to follow me around an attempt to respond to my posts, I will go ahead and tell you to STFU.

I post on topics...

I don't care who creates the thread or who posts the post...

When you have your own forum you can silence me...
 
It's sad that Leftists continue to post stuff about Republicans when the Democrats control the government. Regardless of the purpose, it is interpreted by many as a way to divert attention from the failures of Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress.

The true Leftist will never find fault in the Democratics...

True righties will never find fault in the Republicans as well.
I'm a rightie and I see lots of fault in the Republican party...

I think they all suck, but the right does seem a bit more delusional.

Quite the opposite, but then you're a leftist so it would look that way to you...
 
Only those who love lies love the CURRENT republican party.

It once was a PROUD party that had people who would accept facts, science and didnt need to trash people in the education field to survive its own lies.

I want that party back instead of this "lies R us" party that exsists today.
 
The true Leftist will never find fault in the Democratics...

True righties will never find fault in the Republicans as well.
I'm a rightie and I see lots of fault in the Republican party...

I think they all suck, but the right does seem a bit more delusional.

Quite the opposite, but then you're a leftist so it would look that way to you...

LOL. You are a rightist so it would look that way to you.
 
True righties will never find fault in the Republicans as well.
I'm a rightie and I see lots of fault in the Republican party...

I think they all suck, but the right does seem a bit more delusional.

Quite the opposite, but then you're a leftist so it would look that way to you...

LOL. You are a rightist so it would look that way to you.

Yeah, so who's correct?...:lol:

We could use the approval rating of Congress as a gauge perhaps.:eusa_whistle:
 
I'm a rightie and I see lots of fault in the Republican party...



Quite the opposite, but then you're a leftist so it would look that way to you...

LOL. You are a rightist so it would look that way to you.

Yeah, so who's correct?...:lol:

We could use the approval rating of Congress as a gauge perhaps.:eusa_whistle:

All partisans are wrong.

My leanings are left but I have voted FOR no one on the national level in many years. I will likely vote for Trey Grayson (r) for my senator this fall.
I typically vote for the least damaging candidate. in my opinion of course.

I follow no drummers and am registered as a republican.
 
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LOL. You are a rightist so it would look that way to you.

Yeah, so who's correct?...:lol:

We could use the approval rating of Congress as a gauge perhaps.:eusa_whistle:

All partisans are wrong.

My leanings are left but I have voted FOR no one on the national level in many years. I will likely vote for Trey Grayson (r) for my senator this fall.
I typically vote for the least damaging candidate. in my opinion of course.

I follow no drummers and am registered as a republican.

You're a partisan leftist...

Don't let the voices in your head fool you...
 

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