Ronald Reagan's Record of "Firsts"

[displacedtexan]

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Ronald Reagan's Record "Firsts"

1. First to turn America into a debtor nation.
2. First to increase debt faster than growth of national income
3. First to increase debt faster than growth of GDP.
4. First to double the deficit
5. First to "almost": triple the national debt
6. First to increase spending by 80%--in only 8 years.
7. First to spend more in eight years than was spent in prior 50 years.
8. First to have "real" interest rates of 8% after averaging 1% over 35 years.
9. First to keep prime interest rates at 20%.
10.First to overvalue the dollar to the yen at rate of 262 yen to 1 dollar.
11.First to have served as Governor and increase state spending by 112%
12.First to have home loan interest rates as high as 16%
13. First to cut taxes by 60% for his rich pals
14. First to allow the savings and loan industry to be raided after signing a deregulatory bill and proclaiming "I think we have hit the jackpot." Come and get it! The vaults are unguarded.
15. First to deal with terrorists
16. First to send an autographed Bible to a man he called "The Satan of Terrorists."
17. First to have an admiral plead the Fifth Amendment.
18. First to have a stealing, lying, gutless wife-abusing MARINE LT. COLONEL plead the Fifth Amendment.
19. First to have a "sitting" cabinet member indicted.
20. First to have an Assistant Secretary of State indicted.
21. First to have an Assistant Secretary of Defense sent to prison.
22. First to have over 100 members of an administration charged with crimes..
23. First to have more members of his administration charged with crimes than cumulative total of all other presidents in the twentieth century.
24. First to set a record for the largest one day percentage decline in the DOW in history. 10-19-87
25. First to have over $10,000,000 increase in wealth from serving for 8 years as president.
26. First to testify "under oath" 130 times that "I don't remember."
27. First to have an Admiral with a photographic memory testify 128 times " I don't remember."
28. First to undergo brain surgery a few months after leaving office..
29. First to, repeatedly, falsify his wife's age. As tho anyone cared.
30. First to promote his religious faith and never have an active church membership.
31. First to never use the term Jesus Christ in speeches.
32. First to seek guidance from the stars not from God.
33. First to have had a shotgun wedding.
34. First to have worked as a shill in Las Vegas.
35. First to call a Stealing, Lying, Psychotic, wife-abusing Marine a liar.
36. First to have been openly alienated from his children.
37. First To have served while suffering from Alzheimer's.
38. First to have unemployment at 10.8% since great depression.
39. First to attack a small unprotected nation with 88,000 inhabitants and 10,000 BB guns then PROCLAIM -"America stands tall again." "We have whipped the Vietnam Syndrome"-"We have defeated communism." Gosh! What if we had whipped Cyprus?
40. #1-in farm foreclosures
41. #1-In bank failures
42. #1-In Savings and Loan failures
43. #1-In Percent increase in personal bankruptcies
44. #1-In recorded misstatements
45. #1-In never having a single press conference in which he did not make at least one or more incorrect statements. This record is currently in jeopardy!
46. #1-In needing a staff person standby during press conferences to tell the press "what he really meant."
47. #1-In having servicemen killed during peacetime.
48. #1-In largest drop in popularity in one week. Another record in jeopardy!
49. #1-In being first to honor Nazi Storm Troopers by calling them" Innocent Victims."
50. #1-In being first to be labeled "brain dead affable dunce" by this writer.
51. First to lie - over and over- to reporters "I do not dye my hair; my barber uses a special shampoo."
52. First to have a wife who "forced" him to wear three suits in one day.
53. First to boast "Not bad for a dumb guy who worked only 20 hours per week."
54. First to have his wife sit nearby and whisper answers to questions.
55. First to fall asleep while the Pope spoke.
56. First to invite the Pope to visit the White House and "bring the wife and kids."
57. First to have his press secretary remove him from the microphone because he could not answer questions. Then, as the reporter
yelled out "answer my question," he replied "My handlers won't let me speak." Quick get the white coat.
58. First 20th Century president to have historians rate him below every president of the 20th, except for Richard Nixon. 1994 Poll.
59. First to give us a First Lady with a past reputation for giving the best BJ in Hollywood.
60. First to suggest his eldest son undergo psychiatric examination.
61. First to have been voted in British polls (twice) as the "most feared leader in the world." Sic em Rambo.
62. First to serve as Governor on a "conservative" platform and increase spending BY 112%.
63. First Governor to increase personal income taxes by 60%, tax increase on cigarettes by 200%, state tax collections by 152%.
64. First to have a Special Assistant say on national TV "Sometimes you had to hit him on the head with a 2 x 4 to get his attention."
65. First to have his official biographer state on national TV "After he was shot in 1981, he got slower and slower each year. His speech got slower. He deliberated more and he hesitated more when he spoke. He lost his physical quickness and would not make decisions on the spot. It was a very, very slow and steady mental and physical decline."
66. First to have a popularity rating of only 35% after his first two years in office.
67. First president to have been divorced.
68. First president to have the Geriatrics Department of a major
university study his behavior and conclude that after three years in office he had Alzheimer's.

Lots more Reagan Fun at:
http://liberalslikechrist.org/a-JesusNoRepublican/reagan.html

[dsc]

1. Some of those are just false

For example FDR had to have beaten the increases in debt, spending, etc. Yes he did so for very good reason but he did.

[Art_from_Ark]

7. Number 10 is definitely wrong

The Japanese yen was pegged at 360 per dollar from the post-war period until 1971, when Nixon persuaded the Japanese to let it trade freely. The yen did trade at 262/dollar for a brief period during the Reagan administration, but Reagan actually went in the opposite direction, getting the dollar to be undervalued versus the yen, with the end result that the yen went from 262 to about 160 per dollar in a matter of a few months.

[OpSomBlood]

2. Reagan certainly didn't increase personal income taxes...

...that's part of the reason we had the deficits.

[rfranklin]

3. No, Reagan increased payroll tax, screwing Average Joe

http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_bartlett/bartlett200310290853.asp

--excerpt--

Reagan may have resisted calls for tax increases, but he ultimately supported them. In 1982 alone, he signed into law not one but two major tax increases. The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (TEFRA) raised taxes by $37.5 billion per year and the Highway Revenue Act raised the gasoline tax by another $3.3 billion.

According to a recent Treasury Department study, TEFRA alone raised taxes by almost 1 percent of the gross domestic product, making it the largest peacetime tax increase in American history. An increase of similar magnitude today would raise more than $100 billion per year.

In 1983, Reagan signed legislation raising the Social Security tax rate. This is a tax increase that lives with us still, since it initiated automatic increases in the taxable wage base. As a consequence, those with moderately high earnings see their payroll taxes rise every single year.

In 1984, Reagan signed another big tax increase in the Deficit Reduction Act. This raised taxes by $18 billion per year or 0.4 percent of GDP. A similar-sized tax increase today would be about $44 billion.

[indepat]

4. A fine list just for starters: there are so many more that could be added,

yet he has already been sanctified and will soon be deified 'cause his politics were right.

[truizm]

5. I didn't see...

But maybe I missed: the first and only time which a country has ever been condemned by the World Court for international terrorism. Then we of course vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling on states to observe international law.

[displacedtexan]

6. Oh, yeah! I forgot about that little gem!

Thanks!

I'm sure the folks at liberalslikechrist would appreciate everyone reporting errors or omissions in their list.