Obama = Reagan?

Townhall.com ^ | February 12, 2011 | Larry Kudlow

[Kaslin]

A week after Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday celebration, comparisons between presidents Obama and Reagan continue.

The conversation began when Obama praised Reagan in a USA Today op-ed. He commended Reagan’s leadership, his confidence in and optimism for America, and his great ability to communicate his vision for the country. Reaganites like myself appreciate these sentiments.

But so far, the differences between the two presidents are still huge.

Begin with the economy. Reagan and Obama both inherited deep and brutal recessions. But the first six recovery quarters look completely different for each president.

So far, real GDP has averaged only 3 percent annually for Obama. Employment as defined by nonfarm payrolls has increased by a paltry 121,000.

On the other hand, going back to Reagan’s first six recovery quarters, real GDP averaged 7.7 percent annually while nonfarm payrolls rose by 5.3 million.

No two situations are exactly alike. Reagan inherited massive double-digit inflation with 20 percent interest rates. Obama was left with a colossal financial meltdown. But Reagan’s economic vision put private-sector free-enterprise at the center. Obama has chosen a massive expansion of government power.

These are huge differences. One succeeded, while thus far the other has not.

While Obama’s first act was an $800 billion government-spending package, one of Reagan’s first decisions was a near $50 billion domestic-spending cut ($100 billion constant dollars today). Obama went for a nationalized health-care plan, energy cap-and-tax-and-trade, and pro-union card check. Reagan ended wage and price controls, deregulated all energy prices, terminated the Synthetic Fuels Corp., and fired the striking air-traffic controllers. Big differences.

Drawing from the work of Arthur Laffer and Robert Mundell, Reagan saw the economic-growth benefits of limited government, lower tax rates, and a dollar as good as gold. Gold prices plunged as Reagan and Paul Volcker worked to vanquish inflation. Ever-soaring inflation was the cruelest tax hike of all. But in the Reagan years the inflation rate dropped from near 13 percent to as low as 2 percent -- a huge disinflation tax cut. Accompanied by lower marginal tax rates, the Reagan policies sparked a powerful recovery in business and jobs.

Reagan slashed tax rates across-the-board for individuals, investors, and businesses. At the margin, his reforms lowered the top personal rate from 70 percent to 28 percent. And he left a simple two-bracket tax code that cut thousands of pages of IRS rules and regulations.

And while the top individual tax rate was slashed under Reagan, individual income-tax revenues increased from roughly $300 billion to $450 billion. In other words, the Laffer curve worked. With surging economic growth, the incentives from lower tax rates actually raised tax revenues.

Mr. Obama, on the other hand, campaigned to raise tax rates on successful earners and investors. Along with the dozens of taxes legislated into Obamacare, these are all job stoppers.

Only after the 2010 election landslide did Mr. Obama finally agree to extend the 2003 Bush tax rates for a couple of years. But, he continues his pledge to hike those taxes again when the deal expires in 2012.

From his experience as a movie actor facing a 90 percent tax rate, Reagan always encouraged success. Everyone’s success. And he came to believe that if it pays more after tax to work and invest, then people will do so.

Of course, Reagan increased the defense budget to defeat the Soviets. But during the seven fat years of growth -- to use the late Robert Bartley’s term -- overall federal spending dropped from 23 percent of GDP to 21 percent. (Obama has taken the size of government to 25 percent of GDP.)

As for the budget deficit, Reagan left it around 3 percent of GDP -- almost exactly where he inherited it.

Overall, Reagan’s policies created 21 million new jobs as real GDP averaged 3.5 percent annually during the seven fat years of recovery. The unemployment rate dropped to 5.3 percent from 10.7 percent. The stock market rose nearly 200 percent. And household net worth expanded by $8 trillion.

Quintessentially, Mr. Reagan was a private-sector, free-enterprise man. His policies of low tax rates, lighter regulation, domestic-spending limits, and low inflation rescued the country from the malaise of stagflation. Meanwhile, his military build-up, tough diplomacy, and “evil empire” battle cry defeated Soviet communism. Reagan was an optimist, but a tough-minded one. He believed in American exceptionalism. He also fervently believed in freedom.

Since last November’s Tea Party election, Obama has read about Reagan, talked about Reagan, and very cautiously moved economic policy in the direction of Reagan. I am open-minded. Let’s hope the current president stays on his new Reagan path.

But let’s never forget: Ronald Reagan saved the country 30 years ago. He also saved our future. Hopefully Mr. Obama will learn from that.

[ETL]

Obama = (the opposite of) Reagan

[pnh102]

0bama is the next Ron Reagan.

[samtheman]

But so far, the differences between the two presidents are still huge.

That's an understatement based on a flawed premise.

Like saying the difference between Lenin and Jefferson remained huge even at the end of Lenin's life. As if, despite their differences, they shared common goals. As if, despite the travails involved, Lenin was headed towards Jeffersonian Statesmanship, just didn't quite make it.

The writer is an ignorant moron.

There is no "comparison" between Lenin and Jefferson, between Obama and Reagan, and the words "so far" and "still" are signatures of a mental cripple who doesn't know a) the meanings of simple words, and b) the basic facts about American History.

[Kaslin]

Correct

[Kaslin]

The author writes financial columns, you can not compare it with the life of Lenin or Lincoln, that would be a complete different subject

[bibletruth]

Impossible media lies, so typical of all democrates.

0bama is a communist / socialist NOT = Reagan, who not only helped so save this country, but also was correctly against communism.

The Media Idiots are desperately trying to save face, having voted for this loser, for which is evident that they privately (possibly) know, so they are trying to build up 0bama in every way they can.

[albie]

Obama = turd wrapped in a silk suit...holding a cigarette and eating an ice cream cone...with a smarmy look on his face.

[ETL]

0bama is the next Ron Reagan.

Obama is way more of a leftist than the idiot liberal son of the former/late president. Obama's on the revolutionary communist left.

[samtheman]

It was Lenin and Jefferson, not Lenin and Lincoln and both Lenin and Jefferson had very definite ideas about economics.

[SECURE AMERICA]

A week after Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday celebration, comparisons between presidents Obama and Reagan continue

Reagan - Adult
Obama - Child
Reagan - Leader
Obama - Teleprompter Reader
Reagan - A Hero to many Americans
Obama - A Zero to most Americans.

[livius]

One of the dazzling things about Obama is that he is absolutely flat-out the most spectacular liar I have ever seen. He can say one thing one day and then the very next day, deny that he ever said it or simply “move on,” leaving it sitting there disowned. I don’t know if the press is just stupid or so stunned they don’t know what to do, but nobody ever calls him on it. And this is the secret of his success.

As for the Reagan stuff, Bambi’s sudden prayer-breakfast announcement that he is a born-again Evangelical, and a host of other bizarre things that have been spun out in the last few weeks, I think this is because of the change in management from Axelrod. Axelrod was much more combative both personally and in what he told Bambi to do. But the new person is very low-profile (so low profile I don’t even remember his name) and I think he has decided that Bambi’s best bet is a stealth attack coupled with dazzling, humonguous lies.

[ryderann]

Reagan was substance...the real deal. Obama is all about posing, chants, symbols, and props.

[1rudeboy]

Obama = Reagan?

Note that the headline is followed by a punctuation mark commonly called a question mark, and that the first two sentences of the column signal that the writer is expressing a view he does not hold himself. Don't call him a moron for being unable to read.

[ETL]

Bambi’s sudden prayer-breakfast announcement that he is a born-again Evangelical

Obama is a "Black Liberation" revolutionary communist. "Black Liberation Theology" is a totally concocted, bogus "religion". It was formulated by communists.

"Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal".--James (Jim) Cone,
African American Religious Thought: An Anthology (Paperback)
by Cornel West (Editor), Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (Editor)
____________________________________________

SEAN HANNITY: But Reverend Jeremiah Wright is not backing down and has not for years and in his strong stance on the teaching of black liberation theology is nothing new. He had the same things to say last spring when he appeared on "Hannity & Colmes:"

WRIGHT: If you're not going to talk about theology in context, if you're not going to talk about liberation theology that came out of the '60s, systematized black liberation theology that started with Jim Cone in 1968 and the writings of Cone and the writings of Dwight Hopkins and the writings of womynist theologians and Asian theologians and Hispanic theologians, then you can't talk about the black value system.

HANNITY: But I'm a — reverend

WRIGHT: Do you know liberation theology, sir?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354158,00.html
____________________________________________

Obama's Church: Gospel of Hate
Kathy Shaidle, FrontPageMag.com
Monday, April 07, 2008

In March of 2007, FOX News host Sean Hannity had engaged Obama’s pastor in a heated interview about his Church’s teachings. For many viewers, the ensuing shouting match was their first exposure to "Black Liberation Theology"...

Like the pro-communist Liberation Theology that swept Central America in the 1980s and was repeatedly condemned by Pope John Paul II, Black Liberation Theology combines warmed-over 1960s vintage Marxism with carefully distorted biblical passages. However, in contrast to traditional Marxism, it emphasizes race rather than class. The Christian notion of "salvation" in the afterlife is superseded by "liberation" on earth, courtesy of the establishment of a socialist utopia.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=30CD9E14-B0C9-4F8C-A0A6-A896F0F44F02
____________________________________________

Catholics for Marx [Liberation Theology]
By Fr. Robert Sirico
FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, June 03, 2004

In the days when the Superpowers were locked in a Cold War, Latin America seethed with revolution, and millions lived behind an iron curtain, a group of theologians concocted a novel idea within the history of Christianity. They proposed to combine the teachings of Jesus with the teachings of Marx as a way of justifying violent revolution to overthrow the economics of capitalism.

The Gospels were re-rendered not as doctrine impacting on the human soul but rather as windows into the historical dialectic of class struggle. These "liberation theologians" saw every biblical criticism of the rich as a mandate to expropriate the expropriating owners of capital, and every expression of compassion for the poor as a call for an uprising by the proletarian class of peasants and workers.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=460782B7-35CC-4C9E-A2C5-93832067C7CD
____________________________________________

"Their founding document [the Weather Underground's] called for the establishment of a "white fighting force" to be allied with the "Black Liberation Movement" and other "anti-colonial" movements[1] to achieve "the destruction of US imperialism and the achievement of a classless world: world communism."..."-Berger, Dan (2006). Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity. AK Press, 95.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatherman_Underground#cite_ref-Berger_0-0

Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity (Paperback) by Dan Berger
http://www.amazon.com/Outlaws-America-Underground-Politics-Solidarity/dp/1904859410
____________________________________________

From the New York Times, August 24, 2003

"they [the Weather Underground] employed revolutionary jargon, advocated armed struggle and black liberation and began bombing buildings, taking responsibility for at least 20 attacks. Estimates of their number ranged at times from several dozen to several hundred."

Article: Quieter Lives for 60's Militants, but Intensity of Beliefs Hasn't Faded
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E4DE1539F937A1575BC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2
____________________________________________

Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright and Dr. William Ayers
are greeted by Rebekah Levin with the Committee
for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine.
(Chuck Berman/Chicago Tribune / May 17, 2009)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-ayers_wrightmay18,0,6689521.story

[muir_redwoods]

Reagan possessed trhe very things Obama lacks and doesn’t even know he lacks. Reagan was a confiudent, capable, self-assured adult male; a man. Obama is a scared resentful little child.

[hondact200]

Obama does not compare to Reagan in anyway. It is the hope by the media to see if they can influence conservatives to see some similarties between Odumbo and Reagan. What similarities there are none, except both have a last name that contains 2 a’s in it. Odumbo is the true reflection of the Democratic symbol - Jackass. Someone asked what the D behind the other parties leadership stands for, Drano was my response. D’s desire to flush the drains with Drano and destroy Washington DC - America’s Cesspool. Call in the Honeywagons to drain DC of its cesspool mentality.

[Iron Munro]

Obama isn't man enough to hold Reagan's athletic supporter.

[FrankR]

[1rudeboy]

He can say one thing one day and then the very next day, deny that he ever said it or simply “move on,” leaving it sitting there disowned.

It's the press. Whereas someone such as Bill Clinton, being from Arkansas, understood that a lie still needs a good "narrative," Obama, being from Illinois/Chicago, has never really had to face a press that asks tough questions.

So he lies and gets a way with it, because he's learned that he can.

(Chicago reporters, with a couple of exceptions, are more interested in access to the politician's buffet-table, rather than the politician himself).