Mock him if you want: He oversaw the policies that nourished deepest AND BROADEST decade (+) of wealth creation in your life, and perhaps in history.

Yeah- Civilian government employment increased under Reagan, but nothing like what's happening under Barry.

Of, for the fraudulent Republicanism of yore....

I'm all for truth, but going to MSNBC for it? Especially as an unbiased look at non-Leftists?

Ronald Reagan’s Biggest Mistake – According to Reagan Himself:

According to Ronald Reagan himself, as told to his trusted long-time friend and U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese, the biggest mistake of his presidency was signing the l986 amnesty for what turned out to be more than half the five million illegal immigrants in the country. Reagan was uncomfortable with the amnesty but was persuaded by some of the leaders of his own party (still living) that it would only affect a small number of illegal immigrants and would assure that Congress would follow through with more vigorous enforcement of U.S. immigration laws. The misnamed Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 was touted by its supporters as “comprehensive immigration reform” that would grant amnesty only to a few long-settled immigrants and strengthen border security and internal immigration enforcement against employers who were hiring illegal immigrants.

Playing the Reagan card on the debt ceiling is misleading:

It was against this backdrop that Congress decided to confront Reagan in 1987. The Supreme Court had just struck down a key enforcement provision of the 1985 Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction law (which mandated annual cuts), so Congress came up with a new plan: They’d attach a provision to the next debt ceiling increase requiring that the deficit be reduced by a fixed amount over the next five years until it was zeroed out. First up would be a $23 billion cut from the deficit, to go into effect with the fiscal year that would start that fall. Under Congress’ plan, automatic budget cuts would be immediately triggered (half of them defense-related) if Reagan and Congress couldn’t agree on a plan of their own by November 20.

But of course MSNBC would never lie, right?

You're buying--or selling--Democrat Party spin. Reagan's debt was substantially less as a percentage of the American economy than Obama's.

Reagan's debt was put to use creating economic growth by rebuilding defense; meaning, it was spent on companies making products and employing workers. The jobs were mostly in the private sector.

Obama's spending is on wealth transfer for consumption, because he is a demand-side Keynesian who believes that consumer spending drives an economy (with no concern from where that spending comes from--creating and earning or being given by the government). He has fueled only the growth of government, and a decline in employment overall in the U.S. economy.

During the Reagan years, people worked, earned, and prospered. During the Obama years, half of all Americans are receiving handouts of one kind or another from the federal government that they haven't paid for.

Reagan and Obama lived in the U.S. between 1950 and 2010. Besides that, they have nothing in common. Well, maybe both were Keynesians: tax and deficit spending.

Reagan's not hard-core leftist enough for today's Democrats.

Know how you tell a modern Democrat from a Communist?

The Communist will support the military and defend the borders.

That said, PAY ATTENTION to the loss of function supposedly caused by this "sequester". Now count the money. Apparently, vital functions are much cheaper than we are told, given that we lose so much for so little.

Those are interesting links, Jim.

The newscaster sounds like he' s so pleased with himself. There's a little more to the story, it seems, Mr. Smugly.

Although, during Reagan's governorship, fuel standards were changed. At least according to this news article:

http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_21735517/no-easy-answer-fixing-californias-record-gas-prices

"The state's special blend of gasoline dates back to 1971, when Gov. Ronald Reagan's administration required that fuel sold during the summer be refined in a way that causes less evaporation.

The way to reduce evaporation is to lower what's known as the "Reid Vapor Pressure." The Reagan rule in 1971 required that no gasoline could be sold in California with a pressure above 9 pounds per square inch during summer."

@JasonS, yes, and if you had seen the air in LA (and even Denver Colorado) in 1971, you would understand why the environmental laws needed to be tightened up. It was terrible.

That doesn't mean that in 2013, tightening fuel standards even more for only slightly cleaner air than we already have, is even close to a good idea.

Never was much of a Reagan fan, or frankly a conservative fan. The problem I see with this is have heard too many times, politics have shifted so far to the extreme right, Reagan would be consiered a leftist. My counter is that it has shifted so far to the left JFK would be considered a far right wingnut. A Catolic, want to guess his stance on abortion. "Ask not what your country can do for you" Pretty much the antithisis of the Dem party line.
"In short, it is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now. The experience of a number of European countries and Japan have borne this out. This country's own experience with tax reduction in 1954 has borne this out. And the reason is that only full employment can balance the budget, and tax reduction can pave the way to that employment. The purpose of cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus."

Which kills off the rest of the Dem ticket.

"Ask not what your country can do for you" Pretty much the antithesis of the Dem party line. -- Joe j at April 4, 2013 8:15 PM

I don't have a Lexis-Nexis or similar DB to search, so this is from apocryphal memory. As I understand it during Clinton's first run or president, you would hear that quote on occasion. But every Dem presidential after that has tried to avoid any reference to JFK.

I may be wrong, but it is an interesting point to check out.

Left wing, right wing, conservative, liberal... it's hard to compare country to country or time period to time period. The issues are not always the same. I'm considered left wing in America and right wing in Switzerland... so which am I? It depends on the issue you're looking at. The big issues in Switzerland are not the same as the ones in the US, the problems are not the same, and it is a smaller, more densely populated country.

Under Obama, Forbes sez fewer federal employees per capita than any of his recent predecessors including Reagan.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikepatton/2013/01/24/the-growth-of-the-federal-government-1980-to-2012/

The debt ceiling itself is ludicrous, and originally was devised as a way to make it easier to sell treasuries. If Congress wants to avoid exceeding the debt ceiling, then what Congress should do is avoid passing budgets that exceed it. Congress refusing to raise the debt ceiling for spending it has already approved is like refusing to pay your Amex Bill after you've already gone on a shopping spree.

yes, and if you had seen the air in LA (and even Denver Colorado) in 1971, you would understand why the environmental laws needed to be tightened up. It was terrible.

Yeah, I worked on a dirt moving project near Riverside in 1989-1990, and even then I couldn't believe people would want to live in the LA area. My eyes were blood red after the first day of work because of the irritating smog that drifted out to the San Bernadino area. That was the worst day of smog, though, and some days were nice and clear. I wonder if asthma is more prevalent in SoCal?

Fresno, in the southern Central Valley, still has noxious air quality due to the summer inversion layer so they're still pushing for more fuel restrictions, I think.

Like you said, though, the thing about some of these environmental regulations, they get a foot hold in the law books and then it can be nearly impossible change them when conditions improve.

For example, the Elderberry Beetle has made a quite a healthy comeback, but you'll still see construction projects delayed, or even cancelled, because an elderberry bush would have to be killed.

Under Obama, Forbes sez fewer federal employees per capita than any of his recent predecessors including Reagan.

The author makes a correction in the comment section, saying that the numbers he used reflected total federal, state, county, etc. workers.

Interesting article, but I would think gov't employment around Washington DC has increased if you go by the numbers that show a much healthier economy as compared to the rest of the country.