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I told you. I believe he should have held firm. Not increased FICA taxes and shown the Soc Sec system for what it is....A ponzi scheme from which the Fed Gov't gains power and a constituency (while stealing tremendous wealth from each and every family). He should have talked up private accounts over and over, he was popular, the problem was at a much more manageable level....yet he took the easy route and pushed what he KNEW was going to be a tremendous problem down the road.

Pure nonsense. He would never have been reelected in 1984. Mondale made the mistake of saying he would raise taxes. Imagine if RR said he was going to privatize SS and in the meantime he was not going to approve the 1983 bill to keep it solvent. LOL. You can't be that politically dumb. There was/is a reason why SS is considered the third rail of American politics. RR also didn't have the benefit of such programs as IRAs and other tax exempt private pension plans.

Yet within this very same discussion you and I have been having you openly acknowledge (as an excuse for RR) that the failed notion of raising FICA taxes (some 40 times PRIOR to RR) never solved a d*mn thing....other then to further burden the next generations into the wealth stealing scheme of Soc Sec.

You are hopeless. Even RR couldn't solve the problem of SS because it is going to have to be bipartisan solution. The issue will be demagogued.

So where RR had 40 opportunities to learn from....Ahh, no, he just made a mistake continuing to do the same. Yet, where GWB only had one mistake to learn from, to use a a reference....HE SHOULD HAVE LEARNED! D*mnit! That RR had over 40 chances to learn...Hogwash, he was a true conservative so he is given a free pass (even though he held a larger majority in the Senate for more years than did GWB).

I used the example of the prescription drug plan to demonstrate Bush's failure to reform the entitlement programs. This was the greatest increase in social welfare programs since the introduction of Medicare. Bush is responsible for it. It was not an old program like SS, but a new initiative. Big difference.

Right. RR had these issues when they were at much more manageable levels...Yet he couldn't stand firm (though he had a larger REP majority in the Senate then did GWB)...But these issues were "third-rail" and called for "bipartisan" solutions. He did have a bipartisan Congress didn't he? Enough to get large tax-cuts passed. Enough to increase our military, No?

Yet those same type "restrictions" you allow for RR...You suggest aren't there for GWB. When the reality is these problems (immigration, Soc Sec and other entitlement programs) are much larger problems in size then back in the 80s.

We have a political atmosphere that has never been more partisan (Novak, Cook, G. Will, all these old timer's attest to this). We have an era of 24/7 news, openly & overtly bias MSM, 527 groups (Moveon.org, etc) throwing more money into the political environment then ever before....

Yet, GWB didn't have these same "restrictions" you provide to RR. Give me a break. The political atmosphere is more contentious, more politicized today then ever before.

Again, you allow for RR not to have learned from 40 examples that raising FICA taxes did nothing other then to further steal wealth from American families along with pushing the problem down the road (I.E. creating a bigger problem). This while have a large Majority in the US Senate no less).

Yet, GWB should have learned from ONE example (RR 86 immigration bill). GWB has one chance to learn, RR has over 40.....But you aren't holding them to different standards.

I got it.

RR needed to do certain things in order to be "electable" in 84. But GWB didn't have these same difficulties (IE. The need for education reform in 2000...when soccer mom's were demanding such).