New video shows Rand Paul repeatedly bashing Ronald Reagan

[deleted-05292014 331]

http://www.salon.com/2014/04/23/new_video_shows_rand_paul_repeatedly_bashing_ronald_reagan/

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is widely expected to run for president in 2016, and it’s become trendy among some political analysts to predict that, despite his foreign policy dovishness and hostility to the national security state, Paul will win his party’s nomination.

Well, Paul boosters may want to reconsider, because the liberal Mother Jones has just released a video showing Paul committing what in GOP circles is the ultimate, unpardonable sin: Bashing Ronald Reagan.

A compilation of several videos of Paul speaking, some going back as far as 2007, MoJo’s mashup shows Paul repeatedly criticizing Reagan for being a phony fiscal conservative. As if that weren’t bad enough, the video also shows Paul repeatedly comparing Reagan’s spending policies with those of the hated Jimmy Carter, history’s greatest monster, and finding the latter’s to be superior.

“The deficit went through the roof under Reagan,” Paul says in a video from 2007 showing him speaking on his father’s behalf. “So how long did it take Ron Paul to figure out that the guy he had liked, endorsed, campaigned for, campaigned for him [wasn't fiscally conservative]?” Paul asked. “The very first [Reagan] budget. Ron Paul voted ‘no’ against the very first Reagan budget… Everybody loved this ‘great’ budget. It was a $100 billion in debt. This was three times greater than Jimmy Carter’s worst deficit.”

In another video, this one from 2008, Paul damns Reagan with faint praise, saying the conservative hero’s “philosophy was good” but that he didn’t have “the energy or the follow-through to get what we needed.”

Even while running for Senate, Paul continued to criticize Ronaldus Magnus, saying the Gipper was essentially all talk when it came to shrinking the government and reducing spending.

“People want to like Reagan,” Paul said. “He’s very likable. And what he had to say most of the time was a great message. But the deficits exploded under Reagan,” Paul continued. “The reason the deficits exploded is [Reagan] ignored spending. Domestic spending went up at a greater clip under Reagan than it did under Carter.”

So how is Paul’s team responding to this bombshell? On Wednesday morning, MoJo was sent this statement from the senator: “I have always been and continue to be a great supporter of Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts and the millions of jobs they created. Clearly spending during his tenure did not lessen, but he also had to contend with Democrat majorities in Congress.”

(Apparently, the Paul team hopes dropping the “ic” from “Democratic” will keep the GOP base from abandoning him en masse. Good luck with that.)

------------------------

Saying anything bad about St. Ronnie is like committing political right wing suicide. Before Bush 2 came around, Reagan in my opinion was the worse president in my lifetime. Where to even begin...

[luckytxn 2,264]

I agree with Rand. I served under Reagan and I loved how the country seemed to start to emerge strong again but started to become disillusioned with him. I hate deficit spending as most here know and it seemed that is all Reagan did. It was also at that time that I met his father who was my Congressman and became a campaign worker. Of course back then we had an actual two parties. Now we don't.

[deleted-05292014 331]

I agree with Rand. I served under Reagan and I loved how the country seemed to start to emerge strong again but started to become disillusioned with him. I hate deficit spending as most here know and it seemed that is all Reagan did. It was also at that time that I met his father who was my Congressman and became a campaign worker. Of course back then we had an actual two parties. Now we don't.

I was just a kid under Reagan, but coming from a working/middle class family I remember Reaganomics did not benefit us. My mom was working two jobs along with my dad having a full time job - mainly to be able to send me to private school. We weren't poor but definitely weren't part of the spend free 80s either. Reagan cut taxes for the rich and increased taxes on middle class families like mine.

For me Iran-Contra, dismantling of unions, supporting of right wing paramilitary groups in central america, "drug" war, funding future terrorist groups in afghanistan and of course blowing up the deficit top my list. I think what really made me mad was while he was running up the deficit to bankrupt the USSR in an arms race, the government (CIA) had already predicted that the USSR could not keep up and that the collapse was imminent but we kept spending.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

meh. I lived through those years. They were good years for me. Congress once again showed an inability to make the hard decisions. And both Reagan and Bush the elder were unwilling to hold Congress accountable. First, Reagan signed a budget act that lowered taxes, and increased spending, with the promise of budget restraint to follow that never came. Then Bush signed a budget act that increased taxes, turned certain trust funds into slush funds, and took certain accounts off-budget, then under the cover of "pay as you go", increasing spending.

Edited April 25, 2014 by The Postmaster

[Operator 1,927]

I was just a kid under Reagan, but coming from a working/middle class family I remember Reaganomics did not benefit us. My mom was working two jobs along with my dad having a full time job - mainly to be able to send me to private school. We weren't poor but definitely weren't part of the spend free 80s either. Reagan cut taxes for the rich and increased taxes on middle class families like mine.

For me Iran-Contra, dismantling of unions, supporting of right wing paramilitary groups in central america, "drug" war, funding future terrorist groups in afghanistan and of course blowing up the deficit top my list. I think what really made me mad was while he was running up the deficit to bankrupt the USSR in an arms race, the government (CIA) had already predicted that the USSR could not keep up and that the collapse was imminent but we kept spending.

You were quite the thinker as a kid.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

You were quite the thinker as a kid.

Either a child protege, or lying about his/her age.

[luckytxn 2,264]

Yeah who can forget Bush saying "no new taxes" then promptly signing the largest tax increase in history.

meh. I lived through those years. They were good years for me. Congress once again showed an inability to make the hard decisions. And both Reagan and Bush the elder were unwilling to hold Congress accountable. First, Reagan signed a budget act that lowered taxes, and increased spending, with the promise of budget restraint to follow that never came. Then Bush signed a budget act that increased taxes, turned certain trust funds into slush funds, and took certain accounts off-budget, then under the cover of "pay as you go", increasing spending.

[deleted-05292014 331]

You were quite the thinker as a kid.

Yeah I guess so.

I also learned that, " Starting a new paragraph is a signal to your reader that you are beginning a new thought or taking up a new point"

http://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/pruter/film/paragraphs.htm

[deleted-05292014 331]

Either a child protege, or lying about his/her age.

Ah come on Postmaster, you're just bitter because TV hadn't been invented when you were a kid so you missed out growing up as a child with stuff like:

Edited April 26, 2014 by Jinx614

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

We had black and white, three snowy channels with "ghosts". One day, I started playing with the UHF tuner, and discovered a whole new world.

[Operator 1,927]

Yeah I guess so.

I also learned that, " Starting a new paragraph is a signal to your reader that you are beginning a new thought or taking up a new point"

http://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/pruter/film/paragraphs.htm

Got it. Maybe its my public school education that's the issue.

Your new thought was still being written in the past tense so I think your readers wrongly assumed you were still referring to the '80's. When was it that Reagan politics made you mad?

[deleted-05292014 331]

Got it. Maybe its my public school education that's the issue.

Your new thought was still being written in the past tense so I think your readers wrongly assumed you were still referring to the '80's. When was it that Reagan politics made you mad?

Ah I'm sorry dude. I wasn't bragging about going to private school - I guess you may think I was being well you know....Nah I actually didn't like it most of the time but appreciate the sacrifice that was made.

No the revelation of what the public was told, official came later through the freedom of press act (I think), but at the time the speculation was already out there and being talked about in regards to the Soviet Union not being able to keep up in an arms race. It wasn't actually a State secret.

Topics of politics and current events were routine around the dinner table in my home growing up. So yeah Reagan was often discussed. I remember being on vacation watching the precedings of the Iran Contra affair - the first major scandal I recall unfolding on tv with hearings. I was too young to remember Watergate. Only the rich benefited from Reagan. He didn't do anything for the middle and working class.

[scandal 951]

When was it that Reagan politics made you mad?

I recall the campaign of 1980 well. It was the first US political campaign I actively followed. I was 14 at the time. I remember George HW Bush and John Anderson trailing behind front runner Reagan in the GOP primaries, and Anderson's decision to run as an Independent when it was clear he wasn't going to win the Republican nomination but had widespread popularity as a mainstream alternative to Carter or Reagan. I was cheering for Anderson in the General, but ultimately felt pretty happy when Reagan defeated Carter in November. Carter was just THAT unpopular at the time. The US hostages still being held in Iran seemed to perfectly sum up the mood of the country about the Carter years at the time: we were impotent, we were weak, we were unable to exercise our will at home or abroad. Reagan absolutely seemed like a breath of fresh air in contrast to Carter. Morning in America, indeed (well, that was from the 1984 campaign but it fit the mood in 1980 to a T).

Anyway, I was young. I wasn't particularly partisan, didn't really lean left or right. Reagan was the new guy, and change felt good. I cheered him on, at first. As the 80s went on the bloom came off the rose. Reagan's embrace of the NRA, of Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority, and in due course the sleaze of Iran Contra, opened my eyes to the chasm between Reagan's encouraging folksy words about American middle class values and his unyielding ideology on the other. As the decade went on with Maggie Thatcher in the UK, Brian Mulroney in Canada, and Reagan in America, my views of conservatism in general dimmed. I began the 80s at 14, ended them at 24 so it was the decade of my maturation. I emerged from the decade soured and disbelieving in Reagan dogma about trickle down supply side economics and tax cuts. I honestly cannot understand how those ideas can retain their popularity after the past 3 decades since we first heard about the Laffer Curve during the Reagan years. Since the first days of trickle-down, America has obliterated all the progress made in the post war era. We've taken a middle class affluence that was the envy of the world and replaced it with a society that has greater wealth and income stratification than any other major economy in the world. We've taken a public education system with K-12 and post secondary institutions that allowed anyone from any side of the tracks to have a shot, and replaced it with a system that crushes our next generation with student debt they'll never pay off. We've gutted our highway and public infrastructure, produced a public health system that costs more per-capita with worse health outcomes than virtually any other G20 economy.

Reagan is not responsible for all of these policy outcomes of course. But I firmly believe that he inspired and began the slide that began during the 1980s. Where Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson, and arguably even Nixon built up and upon the GI Bill, the Interstate Highway System, and a progressive tax policy - Reagan began the long slow slide downhill from the mid-century pinnacle of American greatness.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Ah come on Postmaster, you're just bitter because TV hadn't been invented when you were a kid so you missed out growing up as a child with stuff like:

I want my MTV!!!!!

[deleted-05292014 331]

I recall the campaign of 1980 well. It was the first US political campaign I actively followed. I was 14 at the time. I remember George HW Bush and John Anderson trailing behind front runner Reagan in the GOP primaries, and Anderson's decision to run as an Independent when it was clear he wasn't going to win the Republican nomination but had widespread popularity as a mainstream alternative to Carter or Reagan. I was cheering for Anderson in the General, but ultimately felt pretty happy when Reagan defeated Carter in November. Carter was just THAT unpopular at the time. The US hostages still being held in Iran seemed to perfectly sum up the mood of the country about the Carter years at the time: we were impotent, we were weak, we were unable to exercise our will at home or abroad. Reagan absolutely seemed like a breath of fresh air in contrast to Carter. Morning in America, indeed (well, that was from the 1984 campaign but it fit the mood in 1980 to a T).

Anyway, I was young. I wasn't particularly partisan, didn't really lean left or right. Reagan was the new guy, and change felt good. I cheered him on, at first. As the 80s went on the bloom came off the rose. Reagan's embrace of the NRA, of Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority, and in due course the sleaze of Iran Contra, opened my eyes to the chasm between Reagan's encouraging folksy words about American middle class values and his unyielding ideology on the other. As the decade went on with Maggie Thatcher in the UK, Brian Mulroney in Canada, and Reagan in America, my views of conservatism in general dimmed. I began the 80s at 14, ended them at 24 so it was the decade of my maturation. I emerged from the decade soured and disbelieving in Reagan dogma about trickle down supply side economics and tax cuts. I honestly cannot understand how those ideas can retain their popularity after the past 3 decades since we first heard about the Laffer Curve during the Reagan years. Since the first days of trickle-down, America has obliterated all the progress made in the post war era. We've taken a middle class affluence that was the envy of the world and replaced it with a society that has greater wealth and income stratification than any other major economy in the world. We've taken a public education system with K-12 and post secondary institutions that allowed anyone from any side of the tracks to have a shot, and replaced it with a system that crushes our next generation with student debt they'll never pay off. We've gutted our highway and public infrastructure, produced a public health system that costs more per-capita with worse health outcomes than virtually any other G20 economy.

Reagan is not responsible for all of these policy outcomes of course. But I firmly believe that he inspired and began the slide that began during the 1980s. Where Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson, and arguably even Nixon built up and upon the GI Bill, the Interstate Highway System, and a progressive tax policy - Reagan began the long slow slide downhill from the mid-century pinnacle of American greatness.

I was 4 years younger than you. I don't remember the first primaries, I'm not sure I followed it that closely. I remember the air controller strike, the closing of mental hospitals. My mom used to teach mentally ill people at the State hospital and I remember that was closed down under the Reagan years.

I think Carter got a bad rap. In hindsight I do not think he was that terrible of a president. I don't think it was a matter of his policy, rather the unfortunate timing of his presidency. Keep in mind we were coming out of the most turbulent time of internal social unrest and war in post-civil war history. I would not say we were weak rather people were war fatigued. The Vietnam war had just ended officially what a few years before? I remember the evening news and the, "this many days the hostages have been held". But as you mentioned Reagan broke the law, him and Ollie North, John Poindexer, Caspar Weinberger all crooks.

I think if history wants to knock Carter for his foreign policy failures, they weren't any worse than Clinton IMO.

I guess the only highlight of Reagans presidency that I admire was how he addressed the nation after the Challenger disaster. But that's what a President is supposed to do anyway, bring a nation together when there is a tragedy that affects the entire nation.