Editor, Times-Union: We certainly have been immersed in budgetary discussions for the past few weeks. I was struck by what some Democrats are saying as well as by a letter praising President Reagan in the Monday paper. Some Democrats are praising Reagan as was the writer of the letter. This is probably due to a misunderstanding of what President Reagan did during his time in office.
Some have indicated that by the standards of today, Ronald Reagan would be a moderate and not a staunch conservative. It is true that Reagan lowered taxes in 1981. This was a huge restructuring, lowering taxes and increasing some business deductions. However, Reagan was also aware that the annual deficit was going up as a percentage of GDP.
Because of this, President Reagan allowed bills to pass in 1982 and 1984 which, according to tax historian Joseph Thorndike, “… constituted the biggest tax increase ever enacted in peacetime.” What disciples of Ronald Reagan seem to miss is that even though individual taxes were not directly raised, the bills backed by the president made it harder to evade taxes, closed a lot of loopholes and removed some tax breaks.
Eugene Steuerle, who worked on the tax reform of 1986 as treasury secretary under President Reagan, commented that people tend to forget that President Reagan was in favor of “base broadening” which in effect over the president’s years in office raised taxes on the rich (now called job creators) while keeping lower taxes on the general public.
This all seems like what the Democrats are saying should be done and this is why some Democrats quote President Reagan. Normally, this all seems like both sides are looking at very similar things and a compromise should be quite probable. Instead, some Republicans are seemingly following some sort of variation of Senator McConnell’s call for making President Obama a one-term president.
As Shakespeare wrote, “O Judgment! Thou Art Fled To Brutish Beasts, And Men Have Lost Their Reason.” Or – for those in my age group – as the eminent philosopher, Pogo (through Walt Kelly) said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
