The Truth About Ronald Reagan That Conservatives Ignore

Posted by | February 5, 2011 13:44 | Filed under: Top Stories


Think Progress has compiled a list of facts about Ronald Reagan that are rarely mentioned as the myth surrounding his legacy grows. Conservatives have no real leader now, so they’ve constructed one and given it the Reagan persona. As we approach the 100th birthday of the iconic president, this puts things in perspective.

  • Reagan was a serial tax raiser. As governor of California, Reagan “signed into law the largest tax increase in the history of any state up till then.” Meanwhile, state spending nearly doubled.
  • Reagan nearly tripled the federal budget deficit. During the Reagan years, the debt increased to nearly $3 trillion, “roughly three times as much as the first 80 years of the century had done altogether.”
  • Unemployment soared after Reagan’s 1981 tax cuts. Unemployment jumped to 10.8 percent after Reagan enacted his much-touted tax cut, and it took years for the rate to get back down to its previous level. Meanwhile, income inequality exploded.
  • Reagan grew the size of the federal government tremendously. Reagan promised “to move boldly, decisively, and quickly to control the runaway growth of federal spending,” but federal spending “ballooned” under Reagan. He bailed out Social Security in 1983 after attempting to privatize it, and set up a progressive taxation system to keep it funded into the future.
  • Reagan did little to fight a woman’s right to chose. As governor of California in 1967, Reagan signed a bill to liberalize the state’s abortion laws that “resulted in more than a million abortions.”
  • Reagan was a “bellicose peacenik.” He wrote in his memoirs that “[m]y dream…became a world free of nuclear weapons.”
  • Reagan gave amnesty to 3 million undocumented immigrants. Reagan signed into law a bill that made any immigrant who had entered the country before 1982 eligible for amnesty.
  • Reagan illegally funneled weapons to Iran. Reagan and other senior U.S. officials secretly sold arms to officials in Iran, which was subject to a an arms embargo at the time, in exchange for American hostages. Some funds from the illegal arms sales also went to fund anti-Communist rebels in Nicaragua — something Congress had already prohibited the administration from doing.
  • Reagan vetoed a comprehensive anti-Apartheid act. which placed sanctions on South Africa and cut off all American trade with the country. Reagan’s veto was overridden by the Republican-controlled Senate.
  • Reagan helped create the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. Reagan fought a proxy war with the Soviet Union by training, arming, equipping, and funding Islamist mujahidin fighters in Afghanistan. Reagan funneled billions of dollars, along with top-secret intelligence and sophisticated weaponry to these fighters through the Pakistani intelligence service. The Talbian and Osama Bin Laden — a prominent mujahidin commander — emerged from these mujahidin groups Reagan helped create, and U.S. policy towards Pakistan remains strained because of the intelligence services’ close relations to these fighters.

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Copyright 2011 Liberaland
By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.

189 responses to The Truth About Ronald Reagan That Conservatives Ignore

  1. Obewon June 2nd, 2015 at 09:24

    St. Ronnie’s Triple National (public) Debt legacy. Meet Executive Order 12333: The Reagan rule that lets the NSA spy on Americans! http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/meet-executive-order-12333-the-reagan-rule-that-lets-the-nsa-spy-on-americans/2014/07/18/93d2ac22-0b93-11e4-b8e5-d0de80767fc2_story.html

  2. 6660splendidday June 11th, 2015 at 15:32

    Reagan’s Legacy;

    1) Increased the National Debt by
    189% ($998 billion to $2.6 trillion)

    no one else comes close.

    2) Converted
    millions of high paying union jobs into low paying nonunion jobs.

    3)
    Cut spending on healthcare leaving ex- servicem­en, disabled
    people,

    and old without any support and left to rot on streets.

    4) Doubled
    the number of poor in the country.

    5) Turned the US from the major exporter
    of manufactur­ed goods in the

    world to major importer of
    manufactur­ed goods.

    6) Turned US from a net importer of raw
    natural resources into a

    nation that exported raw natural resources (just
    like a third-worl­d country).

    7) Funded terrorists and tried to
    trade arms for hostages.

    8) Funded and aided Saddam with his WMD.

    9)
    Reagan encouraged corruption­, allowing Contractors to sell $25
    toilet

    seats to military for $360 and $8 hammers for $120.

    10) Reagan cut
    income taxes on working class but increased payroll

    taxes and mandated
    contributions­ to Medicare and Social Security

    but did so in
    such a way that top 1% paid 15% less than they did

    before by limiting their
    deductions on first $61,000 but the

    working poorest had theirs increased
    15%.

    11) Reagan took a staggering 436 vacation days at his ranch in 8
    years.

    12) Allowed Rupert Murdoch to circumvent the immigratio­n
    laws to

    purchase American media sources.

    13) Ignored the impending AIDS
    epidemic because it mostly affected Them People.
    14) Encouraged
    neo-conservatives and their fanatical religion to enter politics.

    ##

    • Keith Johnson July 20th, 2015 at 20:04

      1) Obama increases the debt by $1 trillion in each of his first 4 years in office..with a democratic controlled congress.
      2) Unions cause this by pricing their membership out of the marketplace yet still demanding that they pay dues!
      3) Utter crap. VA funding increased and medicare coverage was enhanced.
      4&5) # of poor doubled because of an unwillingness to prepare for jobs that the new economics needed while demanding that they get paid $45/hr to build items that nobody wanted because they got better quality for less from overseas. See Item 2 if you are still confused. Check out the quality of 1980-1990 US made autos!

      No reason to go on since Colmes is insane and anyone that buys his crap deserves a president like Obama. Just wish REAL Americans didn’t have to suffer the same.

      • 6660splendidday July 20th, 2015 at 21:43

        My info came from the Records in Congress.
        Where did yours come from.? Some data is required……. and I do not mean from FUK NEWS.

      • Progressive Republican July 22nd, 2015 at 05:55

        Not one thing accurate. You must be stupid enough to vote GOP.

  3. Kevin Wall July 19th, 2015 at 14:36

    What is the debt now? What percentage of GDP? When Reagan left office the debt was 50% of GDP. Under our Muslim-in -chief, it has gone from 65% to 105%. The numbers are from the Federal Reserve. That increase in debt is on the back or 3 rounds of quantitative easing. Entitlements have exploded under the community organizer-in-chief. The scarecrow must run Liberaland.

    • Jim Hyder July 20th, 2015 at 12:57

      The jarhead musta taken too many bangs in the head of the rifle butts. Typical KKKer blaming the black guy. Your buddies in Congress, the Teabaggers, have managed to stop every initiative to balance the budget.
      If you really want to find the culprits about our economy look in the mirror. Voting for the party rather than the person that has a real budget idea. You voted for the likes of Gohmert, Inhofe, and Cruz sticking us with the dumb shits because they put millions of bucks in ads declaring they would work for you and get back in office to fuck you again. Wake the fuck up.

    • tracey marie July 21st, 2015 at 10:41

      who is a muslim?

  4. Keith Johnson July 20th, 2015 at 20:07

    Well, we know he wasn’t talking about you, Eaglesfan, because the next 3 words are “Who loves America”.

    • eaglesfanintn July 21st, 2015 at 10:07

      You’re right, also I’m not a jerk. But, go ahead and keep interjecting your stupidity, I find it amusing.

  5. 6660splendidday July 20th, 2015 at 20:31

    https://www.facebook.com/LiberalAmerica.org

  6. m1tmc July 21st, 2015 at 00:53

    Libtard distortion and lies. Not surprised

    • tracey marie July 21st, 2015 at 10:40

      name the lie.

    • cwazycajun July 21st, 2015 at 11:02

      you mean even facts are lie’s in bizarro conservative world?/ that’s why the sky is green and the water dry where your at

    • Progressive Republican July 22nd, 2015 at 05:52

      Well, except for the libtard, distortion, and lies part, yeah.

      Otherwise, no.

  7. Dennis J. K. July 21st, 2015 at 10:24

    What do you expect from Alan Combs and it’s 5 years old.

    • tracey marie July 21st, 2015 at 10:40

      facts and truths which anger your kind.

    • Merlin July 21st, 2015 at 11:36

      5 years old?…Your living in 1993. The article may be 5 years old, the crimes are 27 years old! And if you really think the age of the article is important, you are 6 years old.

      • Dennis J. K. July 21st, 2015 at 13:34

        Am I supposed to be impressed by your magical name and surgical mask? Give me a break. Alan Combs is more liberal than any politician. And for your information, I’m not really an Reagan fan. I didn’t agree with many of his actions but he did have a vast majority of the country behind him which we haven’t seen since from either party.

        • Merlin July 21st, 2015 at 19:49

          Sounds like YOU voted for him. Happy Now?

          • Dennis J. K. July 22nd, 2015 at 16:27

            I really can’t think of a president that I’ve personally been happy with in my lifetime. Maybe I’m just expecting too much from politicians. I’d really like to see at least one of them do what they said they would do to get elected whether I agree with it or not.

        • Progressive Republican July 22nd, 2015 at 05:51

          Like that makes his being a two-time traitor who set the world on our current disastrous course okay?

  8. Jack Eck March 6th, 2016 at 16:35

    kkkonservatives completely lose it when you toss out facts about “Saint Ronnie”, it’s always good for a laugh. They just deny any of it happened, “it’s all distortions and lies” :)

  9. Jack Eck March 6th, 2016 at 16:37

    then again, only libtards rely on facts, it’s our elitist education

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