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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: 24KT on January 16, 2014, 01:30:06 AM
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10 reasons why Ronald Reagan was the worst president of our lifetime
If you ever happen to come across a Republican on television these days, chances are that you will hear the name Ronald Reagan. Recent Republican debates are the perfect example of the love fest that the current Republican party has for Reagan as each candidate name drops the former president at every turn. If you only listened to conservatives you would think that Jesus Christ was the only person above Reagan on the totem pole of conservative love. They talk about his love of low taxes, less government and conservative family values.
The problem is that when you step out of the conservative dream and come back to reality, you find that not only was Ronald Reagan a bad president, but he was one of the worst presidents we've seen in modern times. Reagan's policies have destroyed the United States for three decades, and for the eight years he was in office, here are eight reasons why Ronald Reagan was the worst president of our lifetime.
1. Reagan cut taxes for the Rich, increased taxes on the Middle Class -
Ronald Reagan is loved by conservatives and was loved by big business throughout his presidency and there's a reason for it. When Reagan came into office in January of 1981, the top tax rate was 70%, but when he left office in 1988 (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/11/1053759/-It-s-time-for-a-Ronald-Reagan-reality-check) the top tax rate was down to only 28%. As Reagan gave the breaks to all his rich friends, there was a lack of revenue coming into the federal government. In order to bring money back into the government, Reagan was forced to raise taxes eleven times (http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/02/05/142288/reagan-centennial/) throughout his time in office. One example was when he signed into law the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982. Reagan raised taxes seven of the eight years he was in office and the tax increases were felt hardest by the lower and middle class.
2. Tripling the National Debt -
As Reagan cut taxes for the wealthy, the government was left with less money to spend. When Reagan came into office the national debt was $900 billion, by the time he left the national debt had tripled (http://www.federalbudget.com/noble.html) to $2.8 trillion.
3. Iran/Contra - (I break this down in more detail in the article linked here) (http://www.examiner.com/article/iran-contra-anyone-why-ronald-reagan-handled-iran-much-worse-than-obama)
In 1986, a group of Americans were being held hostage by a terrorist group with ties to Iran. In an attempt to free the hostages, Ronald Reagan secretly sold arms and money to Iran. Much of the money that was received from the trade went to fund the Nicaragua Contra rebels who were in a war with the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. When the scandal broke in the Untied States it became the biggest story in the country, Reagan tried to down play what happened, but never fully recovered.
4. Reagan funded Terrorists -
The attacks on 9/11 by al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden brought new attention to international terrorism. All of a sudden, Americans coast to coast wore their American flag pins, ate their freedom fries and couldn't wait to go to war with anyone who looked like a Muslim. What Americans didn't realize was that the same group that attacked the United States on 9/11 was funded by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Prepping for a possible war with the Soviet Union, Ronald Reagan spent billions of dollars funding the Islamist mujahidin Freedom Fighters (http://newsone.com/newsone-original/casey-gane-mccalla/cia-osama-bin-laden-al-qaeda/) in Afghanistan. With billions of American dollars, weapons and training coming their way, the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden took everything they were given and gave it back to the United States over a decade later in the worst possible way imaginable.
5. Unemployment issues -
When Ronald Reagan came into office 1981, unemployment was at 7.5%. After Reagan cut taxes for the wealthy, he began raising taxes on the middle and lower class. Corporations started to ship more jobs out of the United States while hiring cheap foreign labor in order to make a bigger profit. While corporations made billions, Americans across the country lost their jobs. As 1982 came to a close, (http://www.davemanuel.com/historical-unemployment-rates-in-the-united-states.php) unemployment was nearly 11%. Unemployment began to drop as the years went on, but the jobs that were created were low paying and barely helped people make ends meet. The middle and lower class had their wages nearly frozen as the top earners saw dramatic increases in salary.
6. Ignoring AIDS -
By the time the 1980s came around, AIDS had become one of the most frightening things to happen to the country in recent memory. No one understood what AIDS and HIV really was and when people don't understand something, they become scared of it. The fear of the unknown was sweeping across the country and Americans needed a leader to speak out about this horrible virus, that leader never came. Instead of grabbing the bull by the horns and taking charge, Reagan kept quiet. (http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Reagan-s-AIDS-Legacy-Silence-equals-death-2751030.php) Reagan couldn't say the words AIDS or HIV until seven years into his presidency, a leader not so much.
7. Reagan gave amnesty to 3 million Undocumented Immigrants -
In today's GOP, the idea of any immigrant staying in the United States whether they are legal or illegal isn't something that conservatives embrace. What might shock them is that in 1986 Ronald Reagan gave nearly 3 million undocumented workers amnesty. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1283036) The biggest reason for undocumented workers coming to the United States is because corporations hire them at a cheaper rate than they would an American citizen. All the laws that would have cracked down on companies who hire undocumented workers were, of course, removed from the bill.
8. His attack on Unions and the Middle Class -
The Republican war on unions and the middle class (http://vannevar.blogspot.com/2011/02/reagan-legacy-union-busting-bankruptcy.html) has been heating up in states like Wisconsin and Ohio, but it has been going on for a long time. Unions are formed to give a united voice to the workers in an attempt to create fairness between the corporations and their employees. On August 3rd, 1981, PATCO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATCO_strike) (Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization) went on strike in an effort to get better pay and safer working conditions. Two days later, taking the side of business, Ronald Reagan fired 11,345 workers for not returning to work.
9. Reagan raided the Social Security Trust fund -
With Ronald Reagan cutting taxes so drastically, the U.S government was beginning to starve. Reagan added to the government and didn't make enough spending cuts to offset the tax cuts, so the money needed to come from somewhere. Ronald Reagan knew that his polices would create economic bubbles, unemployment would drop and some jobs would be created, but in time the bubble would burst leaving the economy in ruins. In order to counteract his own economic policies, Ronald Reagan needed to find somewhere else to get revenue.
Listening to Alan Greenspan and other advisors, Ronald Reagan raided the Social Security Trust Fund (http://ampedstatus.org/how-your-social-security-money-was-stolen-where-did-the-2-5-trillion-surplus-go/) and replaced it with glorified IOU's. Ronald Reagan raised the Social Security tax rate (http://www.cqs.com/community-alert/socialsecurity.htm) which did add to the revenue, but because there is a cap on Social Security, currently no income over $113,700 is taxed for Social Security, the wealthy didn't feel the tax increase and the pain was pushed to the middle and lower classes.
10. Endless worship and never ending praise -
Ronald Reagan left office in January of 1989 and nearly 25 years later he is held up high by the modern Republican party. As nearly three decades have gone by since Ronald Reagan was in the White House, reality and history has faded with time. Conservative figures like anti-tax Grover Norquist created the "Ronald Reagan Legacy Project" (http://reaganlegacy.blogspot.com/) with a goal of memorializing Reagan in all 50 states. As stated in this article, Ronald Reagan did a lot to hurt the United States, not just while he was in office, but in the years that have followed. What's scary about today's current Republican party is that while Reagan was one of the worst president's this country has had to endure over the last 100 years, he would be considered too moderate to be nominated by today's conservative standards.
(Revised and Updated: 12/3/2013)
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Lol @ this thread. You could replace RR with Obama in all those lines lol. The libturd butthurt myth.
RR best President ever... The bottom 5 all dumbocrats. Fact.
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HEHEHEHEEH!!
These libtards always write these dumb articles because the libtard idealogy was torn to shreds by Reagan.
Most historians place Reagan near the top as one of the best presidents ever. While some of the very worst, including the current clowninchief, are democrats.
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You could replace RR with Obama in all those lines lol.
You could, and a variety of false statements would result.
For example, I think you'd have a hard time reconciling the fact that Obama has made Bush's tax cuts permanent for most income groups, returned the 39.5% marginal rate on income and 20% rate on capital gains, and initiated the PEP and Pease limitations and a 3.8% tax on certain forms of investment income for 'rich' persons, with a revised (1) with 'Obama' in place of 'Reagan'.
But let's say all of the 10 points pertain to Obama as well. How would that affect our valuation of Reagan's presidency in the slightest?
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Link? Looks like a pretty old article.
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You could, and a variety of false statements would result.
For example, I think you'd have a hard time reconciling the fact that Obama has made Bush's tax cuts permanent for most income groups, returned the 39.5% marginal rate on income and 20% rate on capital gains, and initiated the PEP and Pease limitations and a 3.8% tax on certain forms of investment income for 'rich' persons, with a revised (1) with 'Obama' in place of 'Reagan'.
But let's say all of the 10 points pertain to Obama as well. How would that affect our valuation of Reagan's presidency in the slightest?
It was a joke obviously, but it's clear how it would affect it...
The same idiots who write this stuff would say these exact points make Obama the best ever.
It's called epic hypocrisy.
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Leftists always blame Regan for their own failures.
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Leftists always blame Regan for their own failures.
priceless coming from someone who's cries about Obama 24/7 :D :D :D
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Link? Looks like a pretty old article.
From 2011.
Orlando LIBERAL Examiner. ::)
http://www.examiner.com/article/8-reasons-why-ronald-reagan-was-the-worst-president-of-our-lifetime
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From 2011.
Orland LIBERAL Examiner. ::)
http://www.examiner.com/article/8-reasons-why-ronald-reagan-was-the-worst-president-of-our-lifetime
This is the part where our resident genius says she knew it was three years old. :)
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This is the part where our resident genius says she knew it was three years old. :)
It might take her a while to respond because she may be busy advising Billionaires on how to profit from the current WW3 we are all in.
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It might take her a while to respond because she may be busy advising Billionaires on how to profit from the current WW3 we are all in.
;D
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Link? Looks like a pretty old article.
why would being an old article be of any significance
the author forgot to add that he cut and ran in Lebanon after our the marine barracks were attacked
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why would being an old article be of any significance
the author forgot to add that he cut and ran in Lebanon after our the marine barracks were attacked
in the repub world after so many years things become false :D :D :D
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President Reagan is perhaps the best president in US history. During his third year, the GDP was growing at ten percent and was adding one million news jobs a month ... amazing when compared to Obama. The bottom wages earners realized a ten percent increase in wages and the top earners thirteen percentage ... everyone shared in the success. The country grew and more saw more people become millionaires (out of middle class) than during anytime in history. God we could use another Reagan right now.
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President Reagan is perhaps the best president in US history. During his third year, the GDP was growing at ten percent and was adding one million news jobs a month ... amazing when compared to Obama. The bottom wages earners realized a ten percent increase in wages and the top earners thirteen percentage ... everyone shared in the success. The country grew and more saw more people become millionaires (out of middle class) than during anytime in history. God we could use another Reagan right now.
can you tell us how much Reagan grew the government payroll during his presidency
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can you tell us how much Reagan grew the government payroll during his presidency
LOL - so why did the economy grow while Clinton was in office since he didn't grow govt that much?
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LOL - so why did the economy grow while Clinton was in office since he didn't grow govt that much?
I wasn't talking to you but if you want to answer my question about Reagan than go ahead
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Liberals melting just hearing the name RR. Hahaha.
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can you tell us how much Reagan grew the government payroll during his presidency
Government is going to expand in one way or the other from President to President. It's a matter of HOW it expands and the useless programs that go along with it. Obama expanded the government beyond everyone's wildest dreams except for his own. Yeah, RR expanded government but he also added jobs and left with a great economy.
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Government is going to expand in one way or the other from President to President. It's a matter of HOW it expands and the useless programs that go along with it. Obama expanded the government beyond everyone's wildest dreams except for his own. Yeah, RR expanded government but he also added jobs and left with a great economy.
He expanded the military mainly.
There were months of 600k and up of jobs created. Ghettoposdrugaddictedlow downthugbama has not even had one month w over 300k I believe despite a population of tens of millions more.
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He expanded the military mainly.
There were months of 600k and up of jobs created. Ghettoposdrugaddictedlow downthugbama has not even had one month w over 300k I believe despite a population of tens of millions more.
I was talking mostly about useless programs but yes you're right, I have no problem with military expansion.
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Reagan was an embarrassment to true conservatives.
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Government is going to expand in one way or the other from President to President. It's a matter of HOW it expands and the useless programs that go along with it. Obama expanded the government beyond everyone's wildest dreams except for his own. Yeah, RR expanded government but he also added jobs and left with a great economy.
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10 reasons why Ronald Reagan was the worst president of our lifetime
If you ever happen to come across a Republican on television these days, chances are that you will hear the name Ronald Reagan. Recent Republican debates are the perfect example of the love fest that the current Republican party has for Reagan as each candidate name drops the former president at every turn. If you only listened to conservatives you would think that Jesus Christ was the only person above Reagan on the totem pole of conservative love. They talk about his love of low taxes, less government and conservative family values.
The problem is that when you step out of the conservative dream and come back to reality, you find that not only was Ronald Reagan a bad president, but he was one of the worst presidents we've seen in modern times. Reagan's policies have destroyed the United States for three decades, and for the eight years he was in office, here are eight reasons why Ronald Reagan was the worst president of our lifetime.
1. Reagan cut taxes for the Rich, increased taxes on the Middle Class -
Ronald Reagan is loved by conservatives and was loved by big business throughout his presidency and there's a reason for it. When Reagan came into office in January of 1981, the top tax rate was 70%, but when he left office in 1988 (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/11/1053759/-It-s-time-for-a-Ronald-Reagan-reality-check) the top tax rate was down to only 28%. As Reagan gave the breaks to all his rich friends, there was a lack of revenue coming into the federal government. In order to bring money back into the government, Reagan was forced to raise taxes eleven times (http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/02/05/142288/reagan-centennial/) throughout his time in office. One example was when he signed into law the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982. Reagan raised taxes seven of the eight years he was in office and the tax increases were felt hardest by the lower and middle class.
2. Tripling the National Debt -
As Reagan cut taxes for the wealthy, the government was left with less money to spend. When Reagan came into office the national debt was $900 billion, by the time he left the national debt had tripled (http://www.federalbudget.com/noble.html) to $2.8 trillion.
3. Iran/Contra - (I break this down in more detail in the article linked here) (http://www.examiner.com/article/iran-contra-anyone-why-ronald-reagan-handled-iran-much-worse-than-obama)
In 1986, a group of Americans were being held hostage by a terrorist group with ties to Iran. In an attempt to free the hostages, Ronald Reagan secretly sold arms and money to Iran. Much of the money that was received from the trade went to fund the Nicaragua Contra rebels who were in a war with the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. When the scandal broke in the Untied States it became the biggest story in the country, Reagan tried to down play what happened, but never fully recovered.
4. Reagan funded Terrorists -
The attacks on 9/11 by al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden brought new attention to international terrorism. All of a sudden, Americans coast to coast wore their American flag pins, ate their freedom fries and couldn't wait to go to war with anyone who looked like a Muslim. What Americans didn't realize was that the same group that attacked the United States on 9/11 was funded by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Prepping for a possible war with the Soviet Union, Ronald Reagan spent billions of dollars funding the Islamist mujahidin Freedom Fighters (http://newsone.com/newsone-original/casey-gane-mccalla/cia-osama-bin-laden-al-qaeda/) in Afghanistan. With billions of American dollars, weapons and training coming their way, the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden took everything they were given and gave it back to the United States over a decade later in the worst possible way imaginable.
5. Unemployment issues -
When Ronald Reagan came into office 1981, unemployment was at 7.5%. After Reagan cut taxes for the wealthy, he began raising taxes on the middle and lower class. Corporations started to ship more jobs out of the United States while hiring cheap foreign labor in order to make a bigger profit. While corporations made billions, Americans across the country lost their jobs. As 1982 came to a close, (http://www.davemanuel.com/historical-unemployment-rates-in-the-united-states.php) unemployment was nearly 11%. Unemployment began to drop as the years went on, but the jobs that were created were low paying and barely helped people make ends meet. The middle and lower class had their wages nearly frozen as the top earners saw dramatic increases in salary.
6. Ignoring AIDS -
By the time the 1980s came around, AIDS had become one of the most frightening things to happen to the country in recent memory. No one understood what AIDS and HIV really was and when people don't understand something, they become scared of it. The fear of the unknown was sweeping across the country and Americans needed a leader to speak out about this horrible virus, that leader never came. Instead of grabbing the bull by the horns and taking charge, Reagan kept quiet. (http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Reagan-s-AIDS-Legacy-Silence-equals-death-2751030.php) Reagan couldn't say the words AIDS or HIV until seven years into his presidency, a leader not so much.
7. Reagan gave amnesty to 3 million Undocumented Immigrants -
In today's GOP, the idea of any immigrant staying in the United States whether they are legal or illegal isn't something that conservatives embrace. What might shock them is that in 1986 Ronald Reagan gave nearly 3 million undocumented workers amnesty. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1283036) The biggest reason for undocumented workers coming to the United States is because corporations hire them at a cheaper rate than they would an American citizen. All the laws that would have cracked down on companies who hire undocumented workers were, of course, removed from the bill.
8. His attack on Unions and the Middle Class -
The Republican war on unions and the middle class (http://vannevar.blogspot.com/2011/02/reagan-legacy-union-busting-bankruptcy.html) has been heating up in states like Wisconsin and Ohio, but it has been going on for a long time. Unions are formed to give a united voice to the workers in an attempt to create fairness between the corporations and their employees. On August 3rd, 1981, PATCO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATCO_strike) (Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization) went on strike in an effort to get better pay and safer working conditions. Two days later, taking the side of business, Ronald Reagan fired 11,345 workers for not returning to work.
9. Reagan raided the Social Security Trust fund -
With Ronald Reagan cutting taxes so drastically, the U.S government was beginning to starve. Reagan added to the government and didn't make enough spending cuts to offset the tax cuts, so the money needed to come from somewhere. Ronald Reagan knew that his polices would create economic bubbles, unemployment would drop and some jobs would be created, but in time the bubble would burst leaving the economy in ruins. In order to counteract his own economic policies, Ronald Reagan needed to find somewhere else to get revenue.
Listening to Alan Greenspan and other advisors, Ronald Reagan raided the Social Security Trust Fund (http://ampedstatus.org/how-your-social-security-money-was-stolen-where-did-the-2-5-trillion-surplus-go/) and replaced it with glorified IOU's. Ronald Reagan raised the Social Security tax rate (http://www.cqs.com/community-alert/socialsecurity.htm) which did add to the revenue, but because there is a cap on Social Security, currently no income over $113,700 is taxed for Social Security, the wealthy didn't feel the tax increase and the pain was pushed to the middle and lower classes.
10. Endless worship and never ending praise -
Ronald Reagan left office in January of 1989 and nearly 25 years later he is held up high by the modern Republican party. As nearly three decades have gone by since Ronald Reagan was in the White House, reality and history has faded with time. Conservative figures like anti-tax Grover Norquist created the "Ronald Reagan Legacy Project" (http://reaganlegacy.blogspot.com/) with a goal of memorializing Reagan in all 50 states. As stated in this article, Ronald Reagan did a lot to hurt the United States, not just while he was in office, but in the years that have followed. What's scary about today's current Republican party is that while Reagan was one of the worst president's this country has had to endure over the last 100 years, he would be considered too moderate to be nominated by today's conservative standards.
(Revised and Updated: 12/3/2013)
oh, brother ::)
Miss Black Ontario has spoken
As idiotic as the article and the OP are, this is still better than her usual b.s. about magic gas pills, cash for gold ponzi schemes, etc.
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This is the part where our resident genius says she knew it was three years old. :)
Ahem... right on cue. I did. :)
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::)
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I just found this list - WOW - he was a liberal, definitely.
Reagan tripled the national debt.
900bil to 2.8 trillion.
Iran/Contra
Reagan fed billions, weapons, training, intel to bin laden and friends.
Reagan gave amnesty to 3 million illegals.
Reagan emptied social security trust fund.
http://www.examiner.com/article/8-reasons-why-ronald-reagan-was-the-worst-president-of-our-lifetime
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I just found this list - WOW - he was a liberal, definitely.
Reagan tripled the national debt.
900bil to 2.8 trillion.
Iran/Contra
Reagan fed billions, weapons, training, intel to bin laden and friends.
Reagan gave amnesty to 3 million illegals.
Reagan emptied social security trust fund.
http://www.examiner.com/article/8-reasons-why-ronald-reagan-was-the-worst-president-of-our-lifetime
120, your so full of shit I bet you have brown eyes
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Link? Looks like a pretty old article.
Meaning that Reagan WAS one of the worst presidents when the article was written but has since been surpassed?
Or has new evidence come to light that what he's been accused of doing is a case of mistaken identity or sumthin'?
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Anyone who lived during the 80's vs now knows why Reagan is at the top and O-fagget is a bottom. Not too hard to figure out.
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120, your so full of shit I bet you have brown eyes
which of these is false?
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which of these is false?
You fail to look at the big picture of why things were done, you just throw out some nonsense for the sake of doing it
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While the whole thing is a load of shit we really need to look at the " we created the Taliban thing". They didn't get going until 1995 or so. The Russians pulled out in 89. After that everybody squared off with the US sorta kinda backing the Northern Alliance. The CIA has maintained that while CIA and US SOF operated during the war, they never operated or supported Bin Laden's group. The Paki's sorta pushed us where they wanted us to support. After the Russians left we sorta didn't care anymore. The whole thing is retarded. Iran/Contra....really
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You fail to look at the big picture of why things were done, you just throw out some nonsense for the sake of doing it
I fail to see why he allowed 3 million illegals to stay, yes. Was there a really good reason?
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I fail to see why he allowed 3 million illegals to stay, yes. Was there a really good reason?
Look it up assclown, you fucking people take a position and then don't even bother to research what and why it happened
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Meaning that Reagan WAS one of the worst presidents when the article was written but has since been surpassed?
Or has new evidence come to light that what he's been accused of doing is a case of mistaken identity or sumthin'?
So what you're saying is you club baby seals and have seal burgers on a regular basis?
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So what you're saying is you club baby seals and have seal burgers on a regular basis?
Hypocrisy has been a staple in the US diet for so many years... you guys actually believe your own BS.
If you Americans really understood the truth... you'd die of shame & embarassment at how easily you've been mislead, dumbed down, left ignorant & in the dark.
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Hypocrisy has been a staple in the US diet for so many years... you guys actually believe your own BS.
If you Americans really understood the truth... you'd die of shame & embarassment at how easily you've been mislead, dumbed down, left ignorant & in the dark.
Oh but the all seeing canadians know the real truth ::), don't you ever get tired of living in constant fear of the next conspiracy?
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Hypocrisy has been a staple in the US diet for so many years... you guys actually believe your own BS.
If you Americans really understood the truth... you'd die of shame & embarassment at how easily you've been mislead, dumbed down, left ignorant & in the dark.
Yes. You, the uneducated, uniformed, barely lucid Canadian know exactly what dark conspiracy has been hatched in the bowels of the United States government. I am shivering in my boots.
*Reported Myself to Moderator*
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Lol @ this thread. You could replace RR with Obama in all those lines lol. The libturd butthurt myth.
RR best President ever... The bottom 5 all dumbocrats. Fact.
[/quote]
Why?
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Yes, he was very liberal in some ways. But he was a hero, too. I bet ya didn't know:
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10 reasons why Ronald Reagan was the worst president of our lifetime
If you ever happen to come across a Republican on television these days, chances are that you will hear the name Ronald Reagan. Recent Republican debates are the perfect example of the love fest that the current Republican party has for Reagan as each candidate name drops the former president at every turn. If you only listened to conservatives you would think that Jesus Christ was the only person above Reagan on the totem pole of conservative love. They talk about his love of low taxes, less government and conservative family values.
The problem is that when you step out of the conservative dream and come back to reality, you find that not only was Ronald Reagan a bad president, but he was one of the worst presidents we've seen in modern times. Reagan's policies have destroyed the United States for three decades, and for the eight years he was in office, here are eight reasons why Ronald Reagan was the worst president of our lifetime.
1. Reagan cut taxes for the Rich, increased taxes on the Middle Class -
Ronald Reagan is loved by conservatives and was loved by big business throughout his presidency and there's a reason for it. When Reagan came into office in January of 1981, the top tax rate was 70%, but when he left office in 1988 (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/11/1053759/-It-s-time-for-a-Ronald-Reagan-reality-check) the top tax rate was down to only 28%. As Reagan gave the breaks to all his rich friends, there was a lack of revenue coming into the federal government. In order to bring money back into the government, Reagan was forced to raise taxes eleven times (http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/02/05/142288/reagan-centennial/) throughout his time in office. One example was when he signed into law the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982. Reagan raised taxes seven of the eight years he was in office and the tax increases were felt hardest by the lower and middle class.
2. Tripling the National Debt -
As Reagan cut taxes for the wealthy, the government was left with less money to spend. When Reagan came into office the national debt was $900 billion, by the time he left the national debt had tripled (http://www.federalbudget.com/noble.html) to $2.8 trillion.
3. Iran/Contra - (I break this down in more detail in the article linked here) (http://www.examiner.com/article/iran-contra-anyone-why-ronald-reagan-handled-iran-much-worse-than-obama)
In 1986, a group of Americans were being held hostage by a terrorist group with ties to Iran. In an attempt to free the hostages, Ronald Reagan secretly sold arms and money to Iran. Much of the money that was received from the trade went to fund the Nicaragua Contra rebels who were in a war with the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. When the scandal broke in the Untied States it became the biggest story in the country, Reagan tried to down play what happened, but never fully recovered.
4. Reagan funded Terrorists -
The attacks on 9/11 by al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden brought new attention to international terrorism. All of a sudden, Americans coast to coast wore their American flag pins, ate their freedom fries and couldn't wait to go to war with anyone who looked like a Muslim. What Americans didn't realize was that the same group that attacked the United States on 9/11 was funded by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Prepping for a possible war with the Soviet Union, Ronald Reagan spent billions of dollars funding the Islamist mujahidin Freedom Fighters (http://newsone.com/newsone-original/casey-gane-mccalla/cia-osama-bin-laden-al-qaeda/) in Afghanistan. With billions of American dollars, weapons and training coming their way, the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden took everything they were given and gave it back to the United States over a decade later in the worst possible way imaginable.
5. Unemployment issues -
When Ronald Reagan came into office 1981, unemployment was at 7.5%. After Reagan cut taxes for the wealthy, he began raising taxes on the middle and lower class. Corporations started to ship more jobs out of the United States while hiring cheap foreign labor in order to make a bigger profit. While corporations made billions, Americans across the country lost their jobs. As 1982 came to a close, (http://www.davemanuel.com/historical-unemployment-rates-in-the-united-states.php) unemployment was nearly 11%. Unemployment began to drop as the years went on, but the jobs that were created were low paying and barely helped people make ends meet. The middle and lower class had their wages nearly frozen as the top earners saw dramatic increases in salary.
6. Ignoring AIDS -
By the time the 1980s came around, AIDS had become one of the most frightening things to happen to the country in recent memory. No one understood what AIDS and HIV really was and when people don't understand something, they become scared of it. The fear of the unknown was sweeping across the country and Americans needed a leader to speak out about this horrible virus, that leader never came. Instead of grabbing the bull by the horns and taking charge, Reagan kept quiet. (http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Reagan-s-AIDS-Legacy-Silence-equals-death-2751030.php) Reagan couldn't say the words AIDS or HIV until seven years into his presidency, a leader not so much.
7. Reagan gave amnesty to 3 million Undocumented Immigrants -
In today's GOP, the idea of any immigrant staying in the United States whether they are legal or illegal isn't something that conservatives embrace. What might shock them is that in 1986 Ronald Reagan gave nearly 3 million undocumented workers amnesty. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1283036) The biggest reason for undocumented workers coming to the United States is because corporations hire them at a cheaper rate than they would an American citizen. All the laws that would have cracked down on companies who hire undocumented workers were, of course, removed from the bill.
8. His attack on Unions and the Middle Class -
The Republican war on unions and the middle class (http://vannevar.blogspot.com/2011/02/reagan-legacy-union-busting-bankruptcy.html) has been heating up in states like Wisconsin and Ohio, but it has been going on for a long time. Unions are formed to give a united voice to the workers in an attempt to create fairness between the corporations and their employees. On August 3rd, 1981, PATCO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATCO_strike) (Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization) went on strike in an effort to get better pay and safer working conditions. Two days later, taking the side of business, Ronald Reagan fired 11,345 workers for not returning to work.
9. Reagan raided the Social Security Trust fund -
With Ronald Reagan cutting taxes so drastically, the U.S government was beginning to starve. Reagan added to the government and didn't make enough spending cuts to offset the tax cuts, so the money needed to come from somewhere. Ronald Reagan knew that his polices would create economic bubbles, unemployment would drop and some jobs would be created, but in time the bubble would burst leaving the economy in ruins. In order to counteract his own economic policies, Ronald Reagan needed to find somewhere else to get revenue.
Listening to Alan Greenspan and other advisors, Ronald Reagan raided the Social Security Trust Fund (http://ampedstatus.org/how-your-social-security-money-was-stolen-where-did-the-2-5-trillion-surplus-go/) and replaced it with glorified IOU's. Ronald Reagan raised the Social Security tax rate (http://www.cqs.com/community-alert/socialsecurity.htm) which did add to the revenue, but because there is a cap on Social Security, currently no income over $113,700 is taxed for Social Security, the wealthy didn't feel the tax increase and the pain was pushed to the middle and lower classes.
10. Endless worship and never ending praise -
Ronald Reagan left office in January of 1989 and nearly 25 years later he is held up high by the modern Republican party. As nearly three decades have gone by since Ronald Reagan was in the White House, reality and history has faded with time. Conservative figures like anti-tax Grover Norquist created the "Ronald Reagan Legacy Project" (http://reaganlegacy.blogspot.com/) with a goal of memorializing Reagan in all 50 states. As stated in this article, Ronald Reagan did a lot to hurt the United States, not just while he was in office, but in the years that have followed. What's scary about today's current Republican party is that while Reagan was one of the worst president's this country has had to endure over the last 100 years, he would be considered too moderate to be nominated by today's conservative standards.
(Revised and Updated: 12/3/2013)