Many people who calls themselves Reagan Conservatives forget that before Ronald Reagan was elected as President of the United States in 1980, he was governor of California from 1967-75.
Reagan's election as governor in 1966 was his first public office. During the 1964 presidential campaign he served as cochairman of California Republicans for Goldwater.
After defeating incumbent Democrat Governor Pat Brown with 58 percent of the vote, Governor Reagan went on to establish a conservative record in restricting the size and cost of state government.
Just as Republican Arizona Governor Jan Brewer inherited a huge budget deficit from Democrat Governor Janet Napolitano, Republican California Governor Ronald Reagan inherited a huge budget deficit from Democrat California Governor Pat Brown.
What did Reagan do, how did he handle the budget disaster he inherited from his Democrat predecessor. Reagan immediately ordered a hiring freeze of new state employees and then cut the state budget across the board by 10 percent.
The father of Reaganomics did something else that may come as a shock to the blind followers of Grover Norquist and Americans for Tax Reform. Working with a cooperative state legislature, Reagan was able to obtain an increase of the state income tax together with welfare reform legislation that striped the less needy from the rolls and increased benefits for those that met higher eligibility requirements. By cutting expenses and increasing revenue, Reagan was able to close the budget deficit he inherited from his Democrat predecessor.
Fast forward 40 years and doesn't that sound familiar? Isn't that the same as what Conservative Republican Governor Jan Brewer is trying to do to solve Arizona's budget problem, cut expenses and increase revenue? It seems that the only difference between what Reagan did and what Brewer is advocating is instead of raising the income tax, Arizona will cut the income tax to stimulate spending and temporarily increase the sales tax by one penny to increase revenue to help close the gap. .
There is one important difference between Reagan and Brewer however, Reagan didn't have uncooperative state senators like Pamela Gorman and Ron Gould obstructing solving his budget crisis, Brewer and Arizona does.
Bob Haran,
American Conservative Republican
Bob,
ReplyDeleteFor 8 years we have been complaining and blaming Napolitano for her tax and spend policy. The arch-conservative club, the Pchyderm Coalition even drew up a pledge for all Republican office seekers to sign: "No Taxes!"
And now, to my greatest dissapointment, we have a Republican Governor who proposes to increase Sales Tax by 18%.
Whom do you suggest to blame for that one?
Nancy Pelosi? Eleanore Roosevelt? Hillary?
I can name you 2 ladies and one fellow who do not want to be blamed for a tax increase. Guess who that is.
Ronald Reagan was a labor union President. That is a fact. And you get to "labor unions oppose secret ballots in their elections. Thus, conservatives must oppose secret ballots in their elections."
ReplyDeleteIntellectually dishonest. Absurd.
Ronald Reagan was a Democrat. He was for many years and this is a fact. And you get to "Conservatives should be supportive of Democrats."
Intellectually dishonest. Absurd.
Ronald Reagan strongly supported the right to abortion. It's true. Another fact. And you get to "If you're a conservative, you must support the right to abort unborn children because Reagan did."
Intellectually dishonest. Absurd.
Under President Reagan (and a liberal Democratic Congress the entire time but for two years in Senate), federal spending on liberal social programs increased dramatically. And you get to "If you're a conservative, you must support the dramatic expansion of spending on liberal social programs because Reagan signed budgets that expanded spending."
Intellectually dishonest and absurd.
Ronald Reagan, even as a Democrat, even as Governor of California never campaigned on tax increases. He never pushed and fought for tax increases. He had tax increases thrust upon him by an unfriendly legislature.
Get your facts right. And stop letting Chuck Coughlin write your crummy blog postings for you. And stop trying to suggest that people have a duty to support Governor Brewer's efforts to raise taxes by $3 billion on Arizona's working families. And no one is opposing it because of Grover Norquist. That's equally absurd and intellectually dishonest.
Gorman, Gould, Crump, Waring and Andy Biggs -- all respectable conservatives -- oppose it because they think passing the largest tax increase in history in the middle of a recession is a bad idea. It's a respectable position to take. Disagree, you may. But don't stoop to this intellectually dishonest, gutter politics to say that those honorable conservative legislators are somehow bad people because they oppose tax increases.
All opposing comments are welcome if they are clean and don't tell lies about anyone. For the record Candyman, my name is under the post because I researched it and I wrote it, I write my own material, no one writes for me, you on the other hand might benefit from a quest writer.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of name is Candyman anyway?
Bob Haran,
Phoenix