“There is no credibility left for the Republican Party as a force to reduce the size of government. That is the message of the Reagan years.”
Ron Paul 1987
Politicians have a tendency to change history to suit their purposes. The revising of history by Soviet dictators was legendary. Our own leaders have on occasion been guilty of distorting, reconfiguring, or downright lying about past events. Most notable are the claims that Abraham Lincoln launched the Civil War to end slavery and that Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal ended the Great Depression.
One of the greatest revisionist histories perpetuated in the latter part of the 20th Century by both Republicans and Democrats alike is that Ronald Reagan was a conservative, limited government president. Republicans praise him for his record of getting the government off our backs and dramatically reducing the size of the federal leviathan. Democrats vilify him for weakening programs that helped the underclass and for reducing the scope of government needed to ensure economic prosperity. Both Republicans and Democrats couldn’t be further from the truth in their thinking.
In the first place, government got exponentially larger during Reagan’s eight years as president. For instance, during the 1980 race for the White House, Reagan made a cornerstone of his campaign the elimination of federal agencies and departments. In particular, he proposed abolishing the Departments of Education and Energy. Instead of eliminating those wasteful departments, by the end of his term Reagan had doubled their budgets and created another department: the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. In eight years as president, the former B Actor hired 230,000 more bureaucrats. How is that the work of a small government president?
Reagan is also portrayed as a tax reducer by both sides. Up to that point in our history, he was one of the biggest tax increasers of all time. He increased taxes and fees on everything from gasoline to trucking to Social Security. The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 was the largest tax increase in American history to that point. It rolled back many business tax cuts enacted during his first year in office. The remarkable thing is that given his reputation for being a dedicated tax cutter, by the time he left office in January 1989 tax revenues were still 24.7 percent of national income, only slightly down from 25.1 percent when he took office in 1981. The facts bear proof that Reagan was no tax cutter.
Article comments
1 - Glenn Contrarian
Well said, Kenn. In my journey learning about political history, I've learned much to my surprise almost precisely what you wrote in your article. What's more, I've learned that Reagan stood firm in protecting our manufacturing base by keeping our tariffs in place...which was NOT what the conservatives wanted. Then Clinton came along, supported NAFTA with the conservatives and against the liberals...and we've lost tens of thousands of factories to offshoring since then. Economically speaking, Clinton was MUCH more conservative than Reagan. But Reagan is not without fault, for he made war against the unions, and our unions - and our middle class - has only shrunk since then.
It's nice to see an article by a conservative historian with which I don't vehemently disagree. Well done, Kenn
2 - Chet
What about the Iran-Contra debacle, funding and supporting: the Afghanistan Taliban/Alqueda against the USSR (resulting, in part, with 9/11/01), Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the Anti-Sandinistas ( The Contras ) terror groups in Central America, funding/supporting brutal African dictators who were anti-communistic (USSR), etc.
3 - Johncap523
Bravo, we agree! Reagan is a myth created as a counter to FDR by a GOP desperate to recover after the Nixon fiasco. He ranks pretty low on the Presidential charts, actually. And the reference to him being a B actor is spot on. I use that all the time!
4 - Johncap523
@Glenn, good additional points. Reagan did foster in the era of vilifying the middle class and persistent attacks on unions and, as you said, the result, in part due to Reagan is further shrinkage of the middle class and middle class wealth.
Clinton IS ranked as the second most Conservative President of the last 100 years after Eisenhower.
5 - Kenn Jacobine
John and Glenn,
I thought you guys were liberals who blame Reagan for dismantling the government and therefore hurting working families? In my article, the jist is that he was a liberal like y'all.
6 - Clavos
...except, of course, for his sex life...
7 - Clavos
#6 is intended to follow #4...
8 - pablo
Nice article.
9 - Dr Dreadful
Adjusted for inflation, did Reagan really propose progressively larger budgets each year? Just curious.
10 - Kenn Jacobine
In dollar terms he did, adjusted for inflation there was one year that he didn't - 1987.
11 - RJ
"Clinton IS ranked as the second most Conservative President of the last 100 years after Eisenhower."
I'd love to see a cite for this...
12 - Igor
Reagan was a Big Government Big Business republican. Big Business needs Big Government for financial and political support. Rather like feudalism.