MEESE: The Gipper’s principles for governing still apply today

The Washington Times ^ | February 3, 2012 | Edwin Meese III

[iowamark]

As the years pass, Ronald Reagan's stature continues to grow, and it has reached the point where all sorts of people quote him to support their policies or candidacies.

Last year, during the contrived "crisis" over a possible national default, California Sen. Barbara Boxer evoked the Gipper to justify raising taxes: "I find myself these days quoting Ronald Reagan. 'The full consequences of a default,' he said, 'or even the serious prospect of a default by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate.' "

Never mind that President Reagan, whose 101st birthday is Feb. 6, said in 1982: "We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much."

With our nation at a crossroads and in desperate need of the kind of leadership Reagan afforded us, it's important to set the record straight about what he stood for...

The major pieces of his economic plan are these:

1. Reducing tax rates...

2. Reducing federal spending — to contain the size of government, including an almost 5 percent spending cut the first year, in fiscal 1981 (equivalent to a $175 billion cut in one year today). Even throwing in the Reagan defense buildup — which won the Cold War without our firing a shot — total federal spending declined from a high of 23.5 percent of gross domestic product in 1983 to 21.2 percent in 1989. This reduction constituted a 10 percent real decrease in the size of government relative to the size of the economy.

3. Deregulation...

4. Stable monetary policy...

[iowamark]

Edwin Meese III was attorney general of the United States and is a founding member of the policy board of the Carleson Center for Public Policy.

[skinkinthegrass]

Thxs, for the post. :-)

[Moonman62]

2. Reducing federal spending — to contain the size of government, including an almost 5 percent spending cut the first year, in fiscal 1981 (equivalent to a $175 billion cut in one year today). Even throwing in the Reagan defense buildup — which won the Cold War without our firing a shot — total federal spending declined from a high of 23.5 percent of gross domestic product in 1983 to 21.2 percent in 1989. This reduction constituted a 10 percent real decrease in the size of government relative to the size of the economy.

Most of that was due to economic growth, something most politicians and people have forgotten.