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Posted on 08/25/2012 7:08:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
"I’ve been asked if I have any regrets. Well, I do. The deficit is one.” — Ronald Reagan’s farewell address.
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When Ronald Reagan was elected president the Dow Jones Industrial Average hovered around 1,000 (less than 2,800 inflation adjusted) — and had dipped, under President Carter, as low as 759. Unemployment stood at an unacceptable 7+%. The Soviet Union was aggressive, bellicose, and, in the eyes of the Western policy elite, could be but contained, not challenged. At the end of Reagan’s eight years in office, the Dow had tripled in value, on its way much higher. Job growth was vibrant. The USSR was well on its way to dissolution.
How did this happen? Rep. Jack Kemp and his team of visionary economists and policy advocates inspired what became known as “the Supply-Side Revolution”. The “cabal,” as it was then known, pressed for a fundamental policy transformation away from high tax rates (70%) and easy money (13+% inflation) to low marginal tax rates and good money. They faced enormous ridicule by the policy elites, being mocked by, among others, Reagan’s foremost rival for the presidency, George H.W. Bush, who derided the modern Classical economic thinkers as practitioners of “voodoo economics.”
Ronald Reagan, adopting the Kemp formula, had a lot on his plate. While restoring economic growth and confronting the expansion-minded totalitarian Soviets, something got left behind: cutting federal spending and thereby balancing the budget. It is this unfinished business which Rep. Paul Ryan, rising to Congressional Budget Committee chairman and now Vice Presidential nominee-designate, took on as his Quest.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
The article leaves out Paul Volcker at the Fed. There is no type of restraint at the Fed these days. Sad that the article gave no credit to him.
The Impoundment and Budget Control Act of 1974 needs to be repealed! No more baseline budgeting. No more automatic increases.
...requires REGULATORY reform as the third leg of the triad
the democfrats promised four dollars of spending cuts for every dolar of increased taxes. the problem was that the spending cuts were over ten years, whilst the tax increases were immediate. i propose thte same proposal - four dollars cut for every new dollar raised, only make the cuts immediate, and the increase spread over ten years...
My gut feeling is that there will be huge government layoffs that are offset by a 2-1 margin of increase with employment gains in the private sector. Net result, smaller government
and less budget pressure with u/e <6% by start of second year. Getting back on track.
balancing the budget. It is this unfinished business which Rep. Paul Ryan, rising to Congressional Budget Committee chairman and now Vice Presidential nominee-designate, took on as his Quest.
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Ryan makes no attempt at all at balancing the budget. I think 2040 is his target for that, which is absolute crap. Rand Paul on the other hand would balance the Budget in 5 years!
I have been saying this for decades now. The whole proposition demands profligate waste. The only message it does not deliver is, “be thrifty, save money.”
What was the point of the Impoundment and Budget Control Act? Who sponsored it and why?
The Nixon administrations brought us many things, most of them bad in my view. Scroll through this and have a look at all the things government has done “for” us through the years. Notice the lasting legacy that the Dems teed up and many Rep Presidents signed. Mutual ass scratching has been going on for a long time.
The 109th and 108th Congress were a horrible missed opportunity, squandered by Bush, Hasert and Stevens.
http://uspolitics.about.com/od/usgovernment/l/bl_party_division_2.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_federal_legislation,_1901-2001
Correcting one of my own intimations... Nixon did not sign the Impoundment and Budget Control Act... it was passed over his Veto. Nixon had tried to curb spending by Impoundment of $12bil in spending and Congress, under Carl Albert, Mike Mansfield, Robert Byrd an Tip O’Niel... wonderful people. (like heck)
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