CrusaderFrank
Diamond Member
- May 20, 2009
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How did you arrive at that conclusion?
The decades between the post-War 40s and the mid-1980s were the most dynamically productive and prosperous in our history -- all thanks to FDR's New Deal and his constraints on the exploitative policies of the bankers. That era gave birth to an economically healthy and dignified working (middle) class from which your parents and you probably benefited.
That era was brought to an end by the inception of "Reaganomics" and the attending blitz of deregulation which has led to the rise of a monied aristocracy in America and Wall Street's criminal exploitation of Main Street and the near collapse of the national economy.
The New Deal was a failure just like the New Deal Part Deux is a failure. All FDR did was extend the depression for years longer than it would have been. WWII is what gave us the robust economy we had in the 40s and 50s for the reasons I already noted earlier.
Reagan promptly cut income taxes on the very rich from 70% down to 27%. Corporate tax rates were also cut so severely that they went from representing over 33% of total federal tax receipts in 1951 to less than 9% in 1983 (they're still in that neighborhood, the lowest in the industrialized world).
The result was devastating. Our government was suddenly so badly awash in red ink that Reagan doubled the tax paid only by people earning less than $40,000/year (FICA), and then began borrowing from the huge surplus this new tax was accumulating in the Social Security Trust Fund. Even with that, Reagan had to borrow more money in his 8 years than the sum total of all presidents from George Washington to Jimmy Carter combined.
In addition to badly throwing the nation into debt, Reagan's tax cut blew out the ceiling on the accumulation of wealth, leading to a new Gilded Age and the rise of a generation of super-wealthy that hadn't been seen since the Robber Baron era of the 1890s or the Roaring 20s.
Roll Back the Reagan Tax Cuts | Common Dreams
Obama Deficit > Reagan budget
Reagan ran the entire government on less than and Obama deficit
Federal revenues roughly double under Reagan.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj48qTwCqic]WILLY WONKA * YOU LOSE GOOD DAY SIR * - YouTube[/ame]