Posted on 01/19/2009 6:00:53 AM PST by kellynla
On November 4 of last year, the American people embarked on a great experiment. They made a decision to embrace “change” embodied in the person of a young, charismatic, but ultimately inexperienced leader who intends to take the country down an opposite path from where Reagan took us.
Barack Obama, placing his full faith in the power of government intervention and deficit spending, is thus the anti-Reagan, casting off the policies that directly led to the economic boom of the 1990s that lasted up until the sub-prime crisis hit late last year.
Obama likes to talk about “the fierce urgency of now” -- but few remember that Reagan used a similar quote: “the temporary convenience of the present.” Again, Obama and Reagan are polar opposites. Obama says “now” is what matters; Reagan says future generations matter as well.
We’re now living in one of those future generations that Reagan talked about 28 years ago. And things have rocked along pretty well -- until government in its zeal to provide home ownership to those who couldn’t afford to buy houses stepped in and forced the issue. In the current crisis, there is little doubt that government is the problem.
Reagan knew that. When he took office, the American people were sick and tired of the “national malaise,” the “misery index,” and the “stagflation” of the Jimmy Carter years. The inflation rate was 11.83 percent. Unemployment was 7.5 percent. Like Obama, Reagan proposed change. His idea was to stimulate the economy with large, across-the-board tax cuts. The new president identified the problem and laid out his plans in his inaugural address:
“For decades we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children's future for the temporary convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals.
You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but for only a limited period of time. Why, then, should we think that collectively, as a nation, we're not bound by that same limitation? We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow.”
Simply put, Reagan’s solution was to spend less; Obama’s is to spend more.
Reagan cut spending on non-military programs, lowered income tax rates, and brought the country out of the Carter recession. He created 16 million jobs, brought inflation under control and fashioned a sustained period of economic prosperity.
Reaganomics has stood the test of time, with Nobel laureates like Milton Friedman and Robert A. Mundell recognizing what a boon it was to all Americans -- and to the world. Obamanomics on the other hand is rooted in collectivism, which, so far in history, has never worked.
Both methods cannot be right. Either Reagan’s policies based on the theories of Arthur Laffer -- or Obama’s which are based on the ideas of John Maynard Keynes -- will prove to be the correct course. What has got us into the current mess is that we have spent too much -- both as a nation and as individuals. Obama will now attempt to solve the problem by spending more. That’s just the opposite of what Reagan would do.
“But at this particular moment, only government can provide the short term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe.” ~ Barack Obama, George Mason University, January 8, 2009
Good find, Kelly. I turned off the TV early this a.m. when I heard Scarborough’s people gushing about how “Reaganesque” this whole coronation is.
But as pointed out in the article, 0bama’s policies are nothing at all like Reagan’s.
This is gonna be a long four years!
On November 4 of last year, the A.C.O.R.N. people embarked on a great experiment no news this week need to rent movies.
“this is gonna be a long four years!”
you said it. a very, very, looooong four years.
(we may very well get to know what it was like in the warsaw ghetto.)
IMHO
BO would not have been fit to shine reagan’s shoes.
In four years when the US resembles the former East Germany, unemployment and inflation are in double digits, the US dollar is almost worthless and the economy is in shambles maybe people will realize that Reagan was right that government is the problem not the solution.
Keynes is dead. Keynesianism is dead.
It’s only gonna last 2. There will be another repub landslide in the next election. Then another after that.
This new Jimma Carta will assure that.
One of the most dangerous statements that have been ever uttered in American history.
““But at this particular moment, only government can provide the short term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe.” ~ Barack Obama, George Mason University, January 8, 2009”
“One of the most dangerous statements that have been ever uttered in American history.”
Yep...who says “Communism is dead!”
“Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink.”
P.J.O’Rourke
Who knows? But I see a different outcome in my crystal ball.
We are pretty close to the bottom economically. We are due for the cyclical upswing.
The markets dwarf the government, so they will react independently. But the media will credit whatever dopey actions Obama has taken, in the same way they credited the Bush Administration for the downturn.
Any uptick will be credited to Obama and the Democratic congress, and the congressional election will reflect that misplaced credit. Conversely, should the economy continue to spiral downward, it will all still be Bush's fault, and the media will work to get more democrats elected to help clean up "Bush's mess."
All good news belongs to the Democrats, all bad news belongs to the Republicans. Either way, the Democrats strengthen their congressional majorities.
I believe it will take longer than two years. The press has lined up for Obama in an unprecedented way - much more so than during Carter’s or even Clinton’s years.
Any pretense of objectivity and fairness has been dropped. To defeat Zero, we will have to defeat his allies in the media as well.
YES, how interesting that everyone keeps comparing Bambi to REPUBLICANS!!!! (Lincoln, Reagan)
Well.....I MIGHT agree with you, however, the GOVERNMENT is trying to take over different markets....that could change the dynamics....a lot!
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