The Ghost of Reagan Past

That icon of mid-20th century American Conservatism, the 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, is famous for saying, “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem” and “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.”   These are very clever words and they have resonated with millions of Americans, from then until now.

But they do not resonate with me, they are far too cynical for my taste.

Every time I hear a politician (most often a politician invoking the ghost of Reagan Past) speak these words, I wonder who he is talking to.  Does he think that I will vote for a man to represent me in Congress – in GOVERNMENT – and he thinks that I will vote for him because government is the problem?  Is he running to be part of the problem?  It seems so.  Why does he imagine I will vote to send an enemy of government, someone who wants to fix problems by making government even less powerful, to represent us in GOVERNMENT?  If I am a senior, when I hear these words, I think of Social Security (affects 63 million Americans [19.3% of the population], 80% for retirement, 20% for disability, 1/3 are 90% dependent) and Medicare (affects 57 million Americans, 17.2% of the population).  If I am poor, I think of Medicaid (affects 75 million Americans, 22.9% of the population), Unemployment Insurance (most of us at one time or another) and public education where I can improve my lot in life by studying hard.  If I am black (or red or yellow), I think of decades of Civil Rights legislation.  I don’t see government as the problem; when I see a problem in my life, that millions of Americans share, who else can I turn to other than my government?

Here is a short list of agencies whose origins were liberal (“government has a positive role to play in Americans’ lives”) administrations.

• FDA (Food and Drug Administration, 1906, TR) 
• FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Commission, 1933, FDR) 
• SEC (the Securities and Exchange Commission, 1934, FDR) 
• EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 1965, LBJ) 
• EPA (Environmental Protection Agency, 1970, Nixon) 
• OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 1970), Nixon 
• ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, 1972, Nixon) 
• FEC (Federal Election Commission, 1974, Nixon)

Many fair-minded Democrats make the unexpected claim that Nixon was our last “liberal” President (and they are right).   And don't get me wrong; I am (nearly) as often very conservative as I am very liberal!

Which of these agencies would you wish had never been created?  As to how much waste could be eliminated if we took a scalpel to their budgets, I have no argument with that position as all bureaucracies bloat over time and need pruning from time to time.   But do we cut down the EPA (that is responsible for protecting our environment, and has done so successfully) just because it is a regulatory body that costs us tax dollars?   Don't we really want that kind of regulation?

Perhaps in their attempt to rein in government spending, many “conservative” presidents (Reagan, Bush II, and Trump) have put in charge of these agencies men who have spent their lifetimes fighting the missions of the agencies that they are now appointed to lead.  But why would any American choose as director of the EPA a man who has fought against environmental regulation all his life?  And how will workers at the EPA feel about being led by a man who wants to destroy all that they have so proudly built over the years?  Maybe some will quit in protest.  Perhaps that is these presidents' goal: reduce the size of government by undermining its missions, and sending the "savings" to their wealthy friends in the form of tax cuts.

Lest we mistake the myth from the man (or the man from the myth!), President Reagan did NOT close any of these liberal era agencies, President Reagan did not reduce the size (or the budget) of the national government.  He did, however, cut taxes without cutting spending, thereby ushering in the era of “Deficits Don’t Matter” that has been our guiding budgetary principle ever since, Republicans and Democrats alike.

Many Americans believe that we should cut taxes, and scrap agencies and programs and regulations, as though all taxes are an unnecessary and cruel burden on tax payers and all government spending is a dead weight on our economy that buys us nothing that we really want or need.  They should ask themselves exactly what agencies and programs they want to defund, they should ask themselves exactly what regulations should be discarded.  It is easy to make taxes and spending the villain of a too big government.  Until you begin to ask yourself, “OK, exactly what programs should we cut to bring government down to size?   What regulations should we repeal?”

I, too, am an advocate of as small a government as possible.  But, outside of attacking waste and corruption, I wonder how we can say “we should close down the EPA, it is a total waste of tax payer money.”   It is easy to believe until we confront the details of the services that we will lose; then it is not so easy to really believe that “government is the problem.”

Be careful what flag you follow; things are not always what they seem.

“All right then, why is President Reagan held in such high esteem by Americans of all stripes?  He was one of President Obama’s heroes, fgodsake.”

Even to his political opponents, he was known as the Great Communicator.  He preached Small Government, a mantra that most Americans find appealing, even if he accomplished little to bring it about, even if government spending and deficits continued to expand under his watch.  As the first president who didn’t care about deficits, he was a terrible example for future presidents.  As the standard bearer for Supply Side Economics (which his Vice President called Voodoo Economics), his economic creds have become a joke.  But President Reagan had a rare gift, a gift he shared with JFK and FDR, the most loved presidents of the 20th century: he made Americans feel good about themselves.  His optimism was infectious, and it made many of us better than we were.  This gift is not tangible, you can’t really measure it, but you can’t not recognize it when you see it.  And it was a blessing that we all felt and are still grateful for, despite his policy shortcomings.

We should get to know President Reagan better, we should get to know our presidents better, we should get to know American history better, the complexities of what really happened are truly fascinating stuff, and well worth your effort!