Sen. Sanders’ Bill to Tax Millionaires Has Surprising Precedent

One of the first things Ronald Reagan did upon becoming governor of California in 1967 was ram a $1 billion tax increase — about $5.5 billion today — through the state legislature. The additional revenue was needed to balance Reagan’s first state budget, which included a deficit as well as a huge increase in government spending.

chart-at-risk-programs-vs-tax-breaksAt the time, Reagan’s tax increase was the largest ever levied by a state — and it hit Californians right in the middle class:

Reagan campaigned in 1966 on cutting government, but his first budget exceeded [his predecessor Democratic Gov.] Pat Brown’s by half a billion dollars. “Taxes should hurt,” Reagan said, and they certainly did – especially for the middle class. The billion dollar tax increase to pay for that big increase in government spending was sweeping: the sales tax jumped from three cents to five; bank, corporation and inheritance taxes went up half a percentage point to six percent; liquor taxes rose from $1.50 a gallon to $2; cigarette taxes leaped from three cents a pack to 10; and the maximum income tax rose from seven to 10 percent.

In 1968, Democrats were able to stop another Reagan tax increase — this one on food, utility bills and services like haircuts. In 1971, he raised taxes on banks and corporations.

Despite the current mythology about Reagan, he was even more tax happy as president, raising taxes at least seven times during his eight years in office, including the largest corporate tax hike then to date.

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Gov. Reagan in 1967: Californians Support My $1 Bil Tax Hike ‘Because They See the Need to Balance the Budget’

[One] of the most heartening signs we have had in this brief administration is the recent poll which indicates most of our citizens favor our [$1 billion tax hike] revenue package and, of those who favor it, 70 percent do so because they see the need to balance the budget. Perhaps the Federal government could take note of this.

— California Gov. Ronald Reagan, in 1967, advocating raising $1 billion in taxes to balance the state budget. Despite tea party mythology, Reagan had few qualms about raising taxes. He did it at least seven times as president, including the largest corporate tax hike ever.

Via George Skelton, Los Angeles Times

The Reagan Legacy: Can We Talk?

reaganWhile folks born from the late ’70s on reflect fondly on the 100th birthday of Pres. Ronald Reagan, I wanted to inject a little reality on the subject of the Gipper.

As someone who was already around when he was in office, I have a different view of the golden age conservatives now see as the greatest in our country’s history, except of course, for the halcyon days of 3/5ths personhood and what-not at our country’s founding. Reagan gave us:

  • Voodoo economics, aka trickle-down economics, aka supply-side economics, aka tax breaks for the rich
  • Tripling the national debt within two years (see “voodoo economics”)
  • Just Say No
  • Creating a new demographic of Americans: The Homeless
  • A 4,370-piece set of dishes (19 pieces per setting), costing $209,508
  • Bombing Libya and killing 60 people, including Leader Muammar al-Gaddafi’s 15-month-old daughter
  • Ketchup as a vegetable in public school lunches
  • Lt. Col. Oliver North
  • Selling arms to Iran and using the money to overthrow the government of Nicaragua
  • Using astrology to plan presidential trips, functions, speeches, etc.
  • […]

Four Days After Saying She Might Run for President, Palin Compares Herself to Ronald Reagan

You know, I agree with that, that those standards have to be high for someone who would ever want to run for president, like, umm, wasn’t Ronald Reagan an actor? Wasn’t he in Bedtime for Bonzo, Bozo? So that Ronald Reagan was an actor. Now, look it — I’m not in a reality show. I have eight episodes documenting Alaska’s resources, what it is that we can contribute to the rest of the U.S. to economically and physically secure our union. And my family comes along on the ride because I am family. Family is — and my family comes along on the ride to document these eight episodes for The Learning Channel and Discovery Channel.

– Sarah Palin, comparing herself to Ronald Reagan four days after she told Entertainment Tonight reporter Mary Hart that she might run for president.

Reagan Raised Taxes At Least 7 Times, Including the Biggest Corporate Tax Hike Ever

Republican former Sen. Alan Simpson — who was a friend of Pres. Ronald Reagan and who was conservative enough to be elected to the Senate three times by voters in Wyoming, Dick Cheney’s home state — is fed up by what the called the “myths and misconceptions and the distortions” about Reagan’s record on raising taxes.

Simpson, who serves on the federal commission charged with finding solutions to lowering the national debt, spoke out during a recent public hearing.

Transcript:

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Obama Not the Only Recent President to Miss Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Ceremony

The great thing about having Facebook friends who watch Glenn Beck is that you don’t have to. It’s like having Jon Stewart in your news feed, only not nearly as funny.

Three presidents in recent history missed the Arlington ceremony: Reagan, Bush, and Bush.

That’s how I know that the big tea bagging deal at the moment is the idea that Pres. Obama is betraying the troops by spending Memorial Day weekend in Chicago, and therefore will miss laying a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Instead, Vice Pres. Biden will perform the ritual while Obama and the First Lady participate in a service at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Ill.

One immediately wonders if any past president has committed a similar omission without being called a commie, and David Corn, writing for Politics Daily did the research. Turns out three presidents in recent history missed the Arlington ceremony: Reagan, Bush, and Bush.

In 1983, President Reagan was at a summit meeting, and the deputy secretary of defense — not even the veep! — placed the wreath. Nine years later, President George H.W. Bush passed off the wreath to Vice President Dan Quayle (who had used family connections to get a slot in the National Guard during the days of the Vietnam War draft). And in 2007, Vice President Dick Cheney took on the wreath mission, while President George W. Bush was in Texas, perhaps clearing brush.

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Listen to Reagan Shilling for the AMA in 1961, Attacking Medicare As ‘Socialized Medicine’

Here’s more evidence that Republicans have always hated Medicare. Ronald Reagan recorded this nasty propaganda screed in 1961 when he was an out-of-work B-actor working as a shill for the American Medical Association. The AMA opposed a bill in Congress (and that had the support of Pres. John Kennedy) that would have provided medical care for seniors — later known as Medicare — because they viewed it as a step toward “universal coverage,” which they saw as a threat to their fee structures.

“One of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children, what it once was like in America when men were free.”
– Reagan in 1961

The AMA’s distaff organization became so concerned that they put together the propganda exercise with Reagan:

Enter the Woman’s [sic] Auxiliary of the AMA an organization composed primarily of the wives of member physicians. In an essay titled “Operation CoffeeCup: Ronald Reagan’s Effort to Prevent the Enactment of Medicare,” Larry DeWitt, a public historian for the Social Security Administration, describes how the Woman’s Auxiliary was asked to launch a special high-priority initiative under the title of WHAM, Women Help American Medicine in 1961.

“The avowed aim of WHAM was bluntly stated,” DeWitt reports: “This campaign is aimed at the defeat of the King-Anderson [Medicare] bill of the 87th Congress, a bill which would provide a system of socialized medicine for our senior citizens and seriously curtail the quality of medical care in the United States.”

It’s interesting to note that, in addition to fearmongering, Republicans were astroturfing even then:

… Operation CoffeeCup arranged a series of coffee-klatches hosted by the members of the Woman’s Auxiliary. “The Auxiliary members were instructed to downplay the purpose of the get-togethers,” DeWitt explains, “depicting them as sort of spontaneous neighborhood events: “Drop a note — just say ‘Come for coffee at 10 a.m. on Wednesday. I want to play the Ronald Reagan record for you.'”

The last line of Reagan’s diatribe is the money shot: “One of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children, what it once was like in America when men were free.”

He couldn’t have been more incorrect about Medicare, of course. It’s one of the most popular government programs in operation today.

Transcript:

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