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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rich4eagle who wrote (164249)	7/25/2001 1:02:30 PM
From: Little Joe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Rich: <I think cut the highest rates to reasonable levels was good, I think this may have occurred in part before Reagan if not give him credit for that. > As a dem who thought Reagan was dead wrong, I now accept that he is deserving of credit for this. <I think reasonable tax rates for all create a strong economy balanced with job creation and higher minimum wages.> Couldn’t agree more. I think Reagan’s stance against higher minimum wages was wrong, but on the whole he did well. < Reagonomics from the beginning as George Bush Sr. called it was "voodoo economics" based on cutting taxes and increasing spending dramatically, the result was a short term economic boost with a massive burgeoning debt for the next generation. > Here I disagree, I will admit that no one was more surprised than I to see Reagan’s plan unfold so well, but it did. Bush used the term “Vodoo Economics” as short hand to ridicule Reagan’s notion that by decreasing taxes more income would be earned and therefore more taxes collected and therefore the budget deficit would decrease. The fact is that govt. revenues increased dramatically, but Reagan increased spending on defense and the dems increased spending for domestic programs. The result was even more money was spent than the additional revenue generated and the deficit ballooned. Not all of this was bad, because I accept that our military buildup helped to bring the Soviets to bankruptcy and destroyed them. This resulted in the peace dividend which is at least in part responsible for the good economy and the reduced deficits. As George Bush arrived the strategy was already crumbling. the Clinton plan devised by Rubin and Greenspan was based reducing the deficits and debt payments thus creating growth by keeping inflation down and productivity up. Remember this could not have happened without the peace dividend and the lower marginal rates, both of which were Reagan legacies. I am by no means suggesting that credit is not due Rubin and Greenspan, also, but I think the idea that Reagan left us a mess is just nonsense. There are those whose preconceived notions of Reagan will not allow them to see the good he accomplished. I was originally taken in by them, but when he out manuevered the dems politically, I came to understand that if he was a dummy, what did that make the dems. I then began to observe him closely and my respect for him increased. He was not perfect but a far better President than many such as Kennedy, Johnson and Clinton who are revered by dem leadership. While I remain a dem I calls em like I sees them. I do believe that the dems are losing contact with the American Majority and this is a shame because they are still the champion of the little guy, which is why I stick with them, but they are marginalizing the party with fringe issues that don’t appeal to the American people. The fact that they lost to Bush, who is not great by any means should scare the hell out of the party leadership. Instead they continue to assert Bush’s stupidity and their own intellectual superiority. They need a wake up call. If they can’t Bush, maybe they are not as smart as they think. All they really needed to do was to touch on traditional democratic middle class issues and stop letting the fringe run the party. It is one of the weaknesses of dem leadership that they are not nearly as smart as they think they are. Like Rush Limbaugh, no one is as smart as he or the dem leadership think they are. By the way this has been a great exchange, a lot better than calling each other names. Little Joe