Paul Krugman Don’t Cry For Reagan

[cal04]

As the Bush administration sinks deeper into its multiple quagmires, the personality cult the G.O.P. once built around President Bush has given way to nostalgia for the good old days. The current cover of Time magazine shows a weeping Ronald Reagan, and declares that Republicans “need to reclaim the Reagan legacy.”

But Republicans shouldn’t cry for Ronald Reagan; the truth is, he never left them. There’s no need to reclaim the Reagan legacy: Mr. Bush is what Mr. Reagan would have been given the opportunity.

In 1993 Jonathan Cohn — the author, by the way, of a terrific new book on our dysfunctional health care system — published an article in The American Prospect describing the dire state of the federal government. Changing just a few words in that article makes it read as if it were written in 2007.

Thus, Mr. Cohn described how the Interior Department had been packed with opponents of environmental protection, who “presided over a massive sell-off of federal lands to industry and developers” that “deprived the department of several billion dollars in annual revenue.” Oil leases, anyone?

Meanwhile, privatization had run amok, because “the ranks of public officials necessary to supervise contractors have been so thinned that the putative gains of contracting out have evaporated. Agencies have been left with the worst of both worlds — demoralized and disorganized public officials and unaccountable private contractors.” Holy Halliburton!

more
http://donkeyod.wordpress.com/2007/03/18/don%e2%80%99t-cry-for-reagan/

[catzies]

1. Krugman hit that one out of the park. K&R

:kick:

[tech3149]

2. Great post

I think someone posted it earlier but I didn't check it out. My favorite line was the last.

[cosmicdot]

3. speaking of Reagan ...

had these bookmarked

25 Years Later: Observing the Dawn of a Dark Era
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/1/20/7202/89447

The massive (but under-reported)
Reagan Administration Corruption
http://www.liberalslikechrist.org/about/Reagan.html

[Hissyspit]

4. I think the Time cover/article is just bizarre. Reclaim Reagan's legacy? Iran-Contra & the Savings

and Loan debacle (the most expensive scandal in history)? Trickle down (but not really) economics? Indifference to others' suffering?

What the hell?

[Gloria]

5. Oh, God, I couldn't stand DYNASTY again....

[no_hypocrisy]

6. I've wondered why * didn't bring back James Watt to complete

his mission of destroying the EPA.

[The Count]

7. Thank you!

But Republicans shouldn’t cry for Ronald Reagan; the truth is, he never left them. There’s no need to reclaim the Reagan legacy: Mr. Bush is what Mr. Reagan would have been given the opportunity.

[Skittles]

8. THANK YOU

I find the continued reverence for reagan very sickening and it appalls me that so many current DUers were fooled by that evil bastard

[crud76]

9. Wow! Cool!

If they're truly nostalgic - and truly sane - maybe they could take another look at Eisenhower. All one needs to do is listen to the farewell speech he gave before he left the White House to know how much the Republican party has changed - the whole country, for that matter.

Reagan? You gotta be kiddin' me. A traitor to his class and his country.

[heatstreak]

10. K&R