Today is Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday, and the tributes are putting me into a diabetic coma. The hagiography surrounding St. Ronald is almost too much to bear. The Ronald Reagan who is being remembered is somebody I don't know-- a seeming figment of Fox News fantasy who single handedly ended the Cold War by asking the Soviets to take down the Berlin Wall in a speech, saved the economy by cutting taxes for the rich, and cut government spending to put the nation on a pay as you go basis.
I remember a different Ronald Reagan. I remember the guy who slashed taxes for the rich in his first year in office-- bringing the rate down from 70% to 28% for top earners. It was called " trickledown " and it didn't work. Reagan had to raise taxes later in his administration,but not before he had slashed Federal Public Housing for the poor to such an extent that for the first time in living memory, there were poor people, including mothers and small children, sleeping in the streets. Later a whole system of homeless shelters had to be put in place, but as this was mostly funded by cities and states, the Federal government was off the hook for the expense.
I remember a Ronald Reagan who broke the Air Traffic Controllers Union,and increased the Federal Budget Deficit by a staggering 3 trillion dollars while at the same time increasing government spending. I remember a Ronald Reagan who illegally sold arms to Iran and used the proceeds to fund death squads in Nicaragua.
This is the same Ronald Reagan who dismantled the regulations on Banks and Wall Street set in place by FDR and set the stage not only for the financial free for all of the eighties, but also for the recent world wide festival of greed, stupidity and dishonesty that resulted in the current recession..
He was an amiable man, a well intentioned man a decent actor and an astute politician who changed the course of American politics, but he is hardly deserving of canonization. The narrative that is being spun about him on his birthday strays far from the facts of his presidency.
The first miracle of St. Ronald is that he was able to make Americans forget the reality of what he did and only remember the Hollywood version of what they wanted him to be.
The first miracle of St. Ronald is that he was able to make Americans forget the reality of what he did and only remember the Hollywood version of what they wanted him to be.
