reagan

There has been a lot of talk over a new poll that shows Americans would pick Ronald Reagan to fix the economy over FDR. The poll is really interesting:

Ronald Reagan beat out Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the former president Americans would like to see in the White House during these trying economic times, a new 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll finds.

Thirty-six percent of those polled said they wanted the Gipper to lead America out of the economic crisis, while 29 percent picked Roosevelt. Thomas Jefferson came in third place with the support of 14 percent of those polled, followed by Roosevelt’s successor Harry Truman at 8 percent. William Henry Harrison, who was inaugurated in March 1841 and died one month later, came in last with 1 percent support.

Reagan was the pick of 68 percent of Republicans, 16 percent of Democrats and 34 percent of independents surveyed. Sixteen percent of Republicans, 43 percent of Democrats and 26 percent of independents chose Roosevelt.

Something else this poll shows is that Republicans (and even Democrats) don’t really know who Reagan was.  Let’s look at some of Reagan’s actions and views on the economy.

Bob Cesca has posted the following chart, showing how the share of income labor sees is at a historic low:

What's interesting is how much the share dipped during the Bush years. During Clinton's term, the rate was on the rise, after a substantial fall during the Reagan and Bush 41 years.

So what does all that mean? Trickle down works!

Of course the trickle down I'm talking about isn't the one Republicans push. Instead it's one that see's the wealth of America rapidly decrease as the money trickles down to the mass population.

And speaking of Republican economics, this highlights another problem. Look again at the big dip in the Bush years. Republicans constantly told us how bigger tax cuts to corporate America would mean more jobs and better wages. Care to re-think that position?

In a world of supply side economics, the equating factor is simple - if the people have more money then they will buy more goods. Instead Republicans want you to think that if the big corporations have more money, they'll hire more people and put out more goods, even if those goods won't sell. It's that kind of thinking that will keep us in a recession and cause our middle class to keep declining. It's that kind of thinking that the media and right wing has pushed for years and so many Americans now buy into it, despite the historic numbers showing something totally different.

Yesterday during the President’s Q&A session with House Republicans Mike Pence asked President Obama why he won’t support across the board tax cuts like Reagan wanted. This has been a key issue for Republicans for decades and I am wondering why they never did it when they had total control of the government.

Think about it for a minute. During the Bush years, when Republicans controlled the House and Senate, Republicans never enacted such a widespread tax cut. Instead they only focused on the wealthy. They even went as far as securing these tax cuts through reconciliation, so they didn’t have to face a filibuster.

As matter of fact, under Obama we had had more widespread tax cuts than we ever did under Bush. 95% of working families saw tax cuts last year.

I think it’s just really interesting that Republicans only seem to want these tax cuts when Democrats are in control. Sounds like they are afraid that the cuts could lead to big fiscal problems and the Republicans don’t want to be the ones steering the ship when they occur.

Image via Wikipedia

What a way to really shrink the size of the RNC tent:

First Read has obtained a resoultion being e-mailed around to Republican National Committee members for comments that proposes a conservative litmus test of sorts.

This comes on the heels of a rift in the party that was exposed in the once-obscure special election in Upstate New York's 23rd Congressional District, in which national conservative leaders, including Sarah Palin, clashed with national establishment Republicans. The so-called GOP civil war threatens to derail moderate Republican candidacies in heated 2010 Republican primaries already underway. Florida's Senate race is perhaps the best and most prominent example.

The "Resolution on Reagan’s Unity Principle for Support of Candidates" outlines 10 conservative principles the group of signees wants potential candidates to abide by. The principles include support for:

This will certainly push more candidates and supporters to either the Democrat or Independent columns.

Remember when Joe Biden said someone would really test Obama early in his presidency? Well I would consider the pirates capturing U.S. ships and crew as a test, and after yesterday’s news of the Hollywood style rescue of captain Richard Phillips, it looks like he passed his first big military test.

For President Obama, last week's confrontation with Somali pirates posed similar political risks to a young commander in chief who had yet to prove himself to his generals or his public.

But the result -- a dramatic and successful rescue operation by U.S. Special Operations forces -- left Obama with an early victory that could help build confidence in his ability to direct military actions abroad.

Oh and he passed it without having to resort to Reagan style hostage negotiation deals. Of course the right is spinning this and trying to give the administration no credit at all.

Just now on Rachel Maddow, Rep. Don Manzullo (R-Il), who voted against the stimulus bill (duhh), was saying he wanted to see something like this. We give people a $5,000 voucher to go out and buy a new car. That way they could get that new car for about $300 a month and that would put people back to work in the auto industry.

Ok – first thing’s first. The credit markets are still frozen solid. So how will this person get the loan for this $300 a month? On top of that, people aren’t spending money. This idea sounds like something based upon a pipe dream instead of actual substance. People re-sodding the National Mall is guaranteed work. Giving people a voucher for a government sponsored discount on a car isn’t guaranteed to put people back to work. (and not mentioning the fact that buying a new car is one of the worst investments ever)

This all goes to the House Republican’s plan they laid out earlier today. It’s the same record, just skipping over and over again. They want to cut taxes to business owners saying that they would use the savings to hire new people. Well a majority of this country isn’t in that category, but they are the ones who support those businesses. If I have extra money, do I hire more people even if my demand hasn’t increased? No – that is throwing away the money.

We need to get money into the hands of the consumers, and that means making sure they are working. Once people are working then demand will go up, which in turn will also increase employment opportunities.

The wingnuts have found their ammo against Obama that could lead to his removal from office. On day 1 he is already violating rules!

The astute reporters at Clownhall Townhall, with cues from CNN, already notes this major violation:

Obama Breaks Reagan/Bush Oval Office Jacket Rule 

You can even see the seriouseness of this violation of rules in the comments on their site:

douglas writes:
Wednesday, January, 21, 2009 2:00 PM

lack of respect

first sign of whats ahead, he does not respect the tridition (sic) of the office and shows that on day one.

Yes because out of everything facing the nation today, the proper outer attire trumps it all.