Reagan the Great American Socialist

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Reagan: The Great American Socialist

Friday 20 March 2009

by: Ravi Batra, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Ravi Batra comments that if Democratic President Barack Obama is a"small" socialist, then Reagan was the "Great American Socialist."(Photo: University of Texas)

Socialism has been much in the news for some months. Recently, some GOPstalwarts charged President Obama with preaching the heresy. John Boehner, theHouse minority leader, characterized Obama's stimulus package as, "one bigdown payment on a new American socialist experiment.""Socialism" is a pejorative term in American politics and needs to be carefully examined. It usually refers to increased government control over the economy, orpolicies that promote the redistribution of wealth. There is no doubt thatPresident Obama's economic measures, passed and proposed, will raise tax rateson the richest Americans to pay for increased government funding of health care,green energy and education. So the new president is indeed a redistributionist,

but so was Ronald Reagan, except that Obama's plans will transfer wealth fromthe rich to the poor, whereas Reagan's bills transferred wealth from the poor andthe middle class to the opulent. In fact, Obama's measures are puny, whereasReagan's were massive. If the Democrat is a "small" socialist, Reagan was theGreat American Socialist.Let's go back to the early 1980's. In 1981, Reagan signed a law that sharply reduced the income tax for the wealthiest Americans and corporations. Thepresident asserted his program would create jobs, purge inflation and, get this,trim the budget deficit. However, following the tax cut, the deficit soared from 2.5percent of GDP to over 6 percent, alarming financial markets, sending interestrates sky high, and culminating in the worst recession since the 1930's.Soon the president realized he needed new revenues to trim the deficit, bringdown interest rates and improve his chances for reelection. He would not rescindthe income tax cut, but other taxes were acceptable. In 1982, taxes were raised ongasoline and cigarettes, but the deficit hardly budged. In 1983, the presidentsigned the biggest tax rise on payrolls, promising to create a surplus in the SocialSecurity system, while knowing all along that the new revenue would be used tofinance the deficit.The retirement system was looted from the first day the Social Security surpluscame into being, because the legislation itself gave the president a free hand tospend the surplus in any way he liked. Thus began a massive transfer of wealthfrom the poor and the middle class, especially the self-employed small businessman, to the wealthy. The self-employment tax jumped as much as 66percent.In 1986, Reagan slashed the top tax rate further. His redistributionistobsession led to a perversity in the law. The wealthiest faced a 28 percent taxrate, while those with lower incomes faced a 33 percent rate; in addition, the

bottom rate climbed from 11 percent to 15 percent. For the first time in history,the top rate fell and the bottom rate rose simultaneously. Even unemploymentcompensation was not spared. The jobless had to pay income tax on their benefits. A year later, the man who would not spare unemploymentcompensation from taxation called for a cut in the capital gains tax. Thus, Reagan was a staunch socialist, totally committed to his cause of wealth redistributiontowards the affluent.How much wealth transfer has occurred through Reagan's policies? At least $3trillion.The Social Security hike generated over $2 trillion in surplus between 1984 and2007, and if it had been properly invested, say, in AAA corporate bonds it couldhave earned another trillion by now. At present, the fund is empty, because it has been used up to finance the federal deficits resulting from frequent cuts inincome tax rates. If this is not redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich, what else is?Thus, Reagan was the first Republican socialist - and a great one, because his wealth transfer occurred on a massive scale. His accomplishment dwarfs evenFDR's, and if today the small businessman suffers a crippling tax burden, he mustthank Reagan the redistributionist. However, FDR took pains to help the poor, while Reagan took pains to help the wealthiest like himself.Reagan's measures were similar to those that the Republicans adopted duringthe 1920's, which were followed by the catastrophic Depression. More recently,such policies were mimicked by President George W. Bush and they are about toplunge the world into a depression as well. Ironically, the Reagan-style socialismor wealth redistribution is about to destroy monopoly capitalism, the very systemthat he wanted to preserve and enrich.

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