It is a rare occurrence, but every few months an educated liberal caller manages to slip through the screening process and contact Rush Limbaugh by phone on his radio show. Today was one such moment, and what ensued was a moment of awkwardness when Limbaugh was confronted with some "inconvenient truth" about President Ronald Reagan (Audio to the left).
Limbaugh, like other conservatives, often holds up Reagan as the ideal for conservatives to live up to. Conservatives claim that Reagan generated tremendous economic growth, cut taxes, and played a huge role in defeating the Soviets during the Cold War.
However, liberals claim that conservatives have built up something of a "Reagan myth" over the years. As the caller points out, Reagan actually raised taxes a number of times during his presidency. In fact, in 1981 and 1986 Reagan signed legislation that, at the time, constituted the largest tax increases in American history during peacetime. In 1983 Reagan signed a bill that greatly accelerated payroll tax increases for Social Security. The tax increases Reagan signed into law are largely credited with helping extend the life of Social Security many decades. If President Obama called for the same kind of tax increases today to help pay for Social Security or Medicare he would likely be called a socialist, yet Reagan maintains the "conservative mantle" for similar actions.
The caller also points out that Reagan took a number of actions that would hardly fit the "conservative agenda" today. After United States Marines were attacked in Lebanon Reagan withdrew all troops from the country. Today that strategy would be called "cut and run" by conservatives. When confronted with illegal immigration Reagan signed compromise legislation that granted amnesty to approximately three million "illegals."
Limbaugh never disputes these facts, but instead simply questions the caller on where he got his information. The caller refuses to play Limbaugh's game, instead demanding Limbaugh answer how Reagan can be called conservative given the facts. At certain points there is dead silence as Limbaugh struggles to come up with a new response. The facts, in this case at least, seem to have had a liberal bias.
Comments
Reagan did indeed raise some taxes and preside over an amnesty program. So now we know why Reagan has become so fashionable on the left right?
Reagan is not fashionable on the left.
Actually, obama has been trying since day one in the WH to be, well, somebody.
He's been painted as or tried to connect himself to be FDR, JFK, Abraham Lincoln, Jimmy Carter (snicker) and this past week, Ronald Reagan.
Thankfully no one will compare Obama to g.w. bush (snicker).
"It is a rare occurrence, but every few months an educated liberal caller manages to slip through the screening process and contact Rush Limbaugh by phone on his radio show."
It IS a rare occurrence to find an educated liberal caller. As for the screening process, Rush invites liberals to call his show and gives them top tier in the que.
Give him a call and hassle him.
I have listened. Many times he puts on liberals who, while while well intentioned, have no idea how to confront him when he says a blatant lie like "Where did you get this silly nonsense that Reagan raised taxes." In addition, as he tried to do here, Limbaugh often tries to change the subject when confronted with the facts or, worse, he starts personally attacking the cllaer as he did at the end fo the call here.
Que?
He has a bigger following than Howdy Doody.
Another puppet with an arm up his arse.
x
ha ha xexon .. you a funny boy.
that enjoy talking about putting things up one's arses and I'd like you to stop. Thank you for not talking about your perverse sexual fantasies.
@You're the only ones...I think it's pretty clear from your comment who has something up their arse.
It should be pointed out in the interest of truth that Reagan, with congress, cut taxes as well and the aggregate effect of both cuts and raises should be factored into assessing what was the net effect- more or less taxes.
Also while Reagan presided over an amnesty program he did not have a problem with enforcing immigration laws on the books. All too many on the left seem to equate law enforcement with anti-immigrant perspectives.
Since you are conformtable placing stereotypes over entire demographics of people ( QUOTE: All too many on the left seem to equate law enforcement with anti-immigrant perspectives.)
I'll respond in kind with my own stereotypical assumption. All you "people on the right" think that law enforcement is immigration control. We have police to be cops. We have ICE to handle immigration issues.
How bout the both of us crawl back under our rocks and let the big boys handle the things they do and not make assinine judgements about what other people think just because they aren't on your Christmas list?
As to your other point, I am genuinely interested in the sum-total of Reagan's tax record. Wait, no I'm not. He was last President on Jan. 20, 1989. Our economy and the entire world outlook is so different today than it was then, there is no comparison that can be meaningfully made.
/moving on now
Just passing thru...
QUOTE: <strong>All too many</strong> on the left seem to equate law enforcement with anti-immigrant perspectives...
All too many is all, therefore not stereotypical.
Except that Obama has enforced the immigration laws far more forcefully than any of the recent presidents. The US has arrested & deported more illegals in the past two years than ever before!
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=456
The effective tax rate increase dramatically for the lower two quintiles, were effectively the same for the second two quintiles, and declined for the third.
Well, it's nice when a conservative who listens to bs from Limbaugh and Beck is sometimes interested in the truth. The point the caller was trying to make was the disconnect between how conservatives view Reagan and his actual record. Reagan raised taxes to try to keep the deficit from getting outrageously high. Something a Republican could never say today without being blasted from the Tea-baggers. As for Obama, he was dealt the worse hand of any President since Roosevelt during the Great Depression. His policies of which have increased the deficit were started under Bush with support on the Right. The concern for the deficit has started now that a Democrat is in office again. Where was it from 1980 to 2008 when Republicans held the presidency for almost all that time except for Clinton who's the only one who left with a surplus which Bush gave back in tax cuts, only to grow the deficit bigger. Reagan's son Ron has made clear that is father was a civil man who was friends with those he disagreed with, never stooping to name calling that comes daily from Teabagger community. Obama(Mr. Lefty) is on track to having 70 percent more deportations than Bush. I pray these facts don't give you a cardiac.
Well said Mr. Bouchat.
I would like to make a correction - Clinton did not leave office with a surplus. The main cause for the "surplus" is an accounting discrepency between government accounting and accounting for the rest of us. Governments don't have to account for underfunded pensions. As such, we saw a surplus because money was being raided out of Social Security to pay for programs. In reality, it's the same thing as taking on a large debt because the unfunded liability in SS was just passed on down the road to be paid by someone else, which is all a debt is.
Clinton never had a surplus at any point in office. Social Security maintained a massive deficit that, because government made unique rules for itself, managed to fool most people.
"The concern for the deficit has started now that a Democrat is in office again."
Only a moron could make that statement. (:
Yup, BO has stolen more money from tax payers then the last 100 Congresses combined. (:
Only a moron could make that statement. (:
That was a great caller who unfortunately will never be heard from again on El Mushbo's show. And yes, chances are you've paid less taxes under President Obama. A third of the stimulus went to useful tax credits. Not something you're going to learn about on the AM radio.
"And yes, chances are you've paid less taxes under President Obama"
Well sure, if you're a democrat. We all know democrats don't pay taxes. They just take them and call them entitlements. Fact is though, BO has taken more form Americans pockets then any other President in our history.
Obviously "Sure" does not receive a paycheck.
The tax cuts were non-partisan in nature. Democrats or Republicans it did not matter - anyone earning under $250K paid less. Those over paid the same as they had under President Bush.
With the recession, far fewer dollars were received by the government in revenue which contributed to the deficit. Fewer dollars received - so if fewer dollars were received, I'm not sure how this President has stolen more than any other when he has received less. That doesn't seem to be a logical argument.
Hey Sure, just where did you hear that Fox News? Thats a lie, so come on prove me wrong with the FACTS!!!!
Taxes weren't cut. Sure, surface taxes that you notice were, but overall, taxes are higher today. A major tax most people tend to fail to account for is the inflation tax. Every new dollar printed out to pay for government expenses is a tax on you. Monetary printing has dramatically increased in recent years, meaning you're getting taxed that way instead of via the IRS.
Beautiful article. Ryan Witt should work for Media Matters. Way to catch Mr. Limbaugh in a boldface untruth. It is interesting that he rarely, if ever, gets on the line with someone that dare diasgree with him. Keep up the stellar reporting and analysis.
Obviously, you've never listened to him. Opposing callers get pushed to the front of the line when they call in. Nice try.
I've double-checked the taxes you mention and by every measure of their 'burden' whether by % of GDP or by real dollars they are all still lower than a real burden.
For example when measuring by GDP, all tax changes under Reagan ammounted to a NEGATIVE -0.95% of GDP.
We cannot criticized using Tax Revenues as a measure because the underlying theory of his tax cuts was using the 'Laffer Curve', although the 'Rate' on the top 3 quin-tiles was lower, the revenue they gave was much higher.
Additionally, IF tax cuts encouraged people to start a business, then they would count as tax revenue, further distorting the real hypothesis.
I think Limbaugh was in the right to ask for sources and real data.
You only cited an article in Forbes, I chased that down and found no hard data... (admittedly the writer is less than neutral)
They only mention the name of the bill passed with no hard numbers to back up any 'tax cut' or 'tax hike'!
I found studies with Cato and the Joint Economic Committee that show Reagan's net tax cuts to be negative, but I'd bet you wouldn't accept them for whatever reason.
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Do you have any hard data to back up the claim that Reagan 'Raised taxes'?
By what measure did he raise taxes?
Are all taxes the same?
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