Video Shows Ronald Reagan Declaring Support For Tax System Similar To Buffett Rule

ThinkProgress:

Last fall, when President Obama debuted the Buffett Rule -- the simple idea that millionaires and billionaires should pay at least the same tax rate as middle class workers -- we climbed into the wayback machine and found a video of President Ronald Reagan decrying "crazy" tax loopholes that allowed a millionaire to pay a lower tax rate than a bus driver.

Read the whole story at ThinkProgress

Comments

[Dardedar]

01:10 AM on 04/15/2012

Contrary to what you have heard from the Tea Party folks, taxes, and tax collection is at 50 year lows. Taxes are lower under Obama than they were under GW Bush, Clinton, papa Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Johnson, Nixon and Kennedy. Observe:

"Federal, state and local taxes — including income, property, sales and other taxes consumed 9.2% of all personal income in 2009, the lowest rate since 1950, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports. That rate is far below the historic average of 12% for the last half-century. The overall tax burden hit bottom in December at 8.8.% of income before rising slightly in the first three months of 2010."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/2010-05-10-taxes_N.htm

See also the ten charts posted here showing the US is a *very* low tax country when compared to peer nations, or when compared to our tax rates in the past: http://fayfreethinkers.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=24092#p24092

"Not only has Obama shrunk the size the government, but he has reduced it more than Republican hero Ronald Reagan ever did." http://www.politicususa.com/en/big-government-obama-reagan
In 2011, President Obama became the biggest tax cutter in American history. Obama has cut more taxes than any other president in American history. Obama’s move to reorganize and cut government overlap represents who this president really is, and how he governs." http://www.politicususa.com/en/obama-great-tax-cutter

[Gaylord P Farqua]

03:13 PM on 04/10/2012

Reagan may not be the saint that all those who love to drop his name like to say he is. But, he at least was a reasonable man and would be sickened at what his Republican Party has turned into as the TPGOP. Conservative political theory has little or nothing to do with the behavior of these Tea Party types who have ridden into office on the tabs of billionaires and multi-millionaires and as the Turtle McConnell has said, have only one objective and it is to unseat the President. If it means obstructing any form of recovery with a jobs bill or extending unemployment to help the jobless feed their families or even turning a deaf the cries of those who desperately need health care-so be it. These are mean spirited people who have no business in Washington and do not represent the majority of Americans-only the rich and major corporations and banks.

[Alux]

03:03 PM on 04/10/2012

What Reagan was talking about ended up becoming the Alternative Minimun Tax.

Now anybody who makes more than around $1.87 a year has to deal with that nightmare.

But it's not enough for Obama.

No, he wants to add another. new and different nightmare to everyone's April as we try to understand how Congress and the IRS can take words that have clear everyday meanings and change them to mean something that no expensively educated person not under the influence of a half-bottle of Washington D.C. could ever decipher.

Hey Obama - just make the AMT something useful instead of drudging up old Reagan clips and trying to fool the hopelessly dull that somehow Reagan would support new taxes that will permit the US to claim its citizens are the highest taxed in the world.

[Dardedar]

01:46 AM on 04/15/2012

Highest in the world? Not even close. At 50 year lows, and extraordinarily low when compared to other countries or even our own history. All nicely explained here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Dardedar/ronald-reagan-buffett-rule-video_n_1412932_148132743.html

[BaPef Amheh]

02:45 PM on 04/10/2012

I posted quotes of this speech to the comments of every article where republicans were criticizing the idea for exactly this reason.

[anothermoderate]

02:39 PM on 04/10/2012

It hasn't been all that long ago when Republicans were touting Reagan & his ideas at almosst every turn. Now it seems they rarely mention himm. Interesting.

(chuckle, chortle, wheeze, snort, snicker)

[Andrea Blackwell]

03:51 AM on 04/11/2012

Remember all that 'family values' stuff? ethics'? I think I heard one of them TRY to form the words and stumbled around it without actually stepping in it.
Every time they do, 10 of them come tumbling out of the closet.
(wink,wink, nudge,nudge, know what I mean?)

Today's Dems are the Republicans of the 60-70s. And everybody knows that the Dems had more appeal. They jumped ship and what's left of the GOP are the dregs you see flipping around these past mortifying months. Dems are already the new right, the GOP jumped off the edge LONG ago. What we need is a new LEFT.
Watching them has been like a deep tissue massage. Agonizingly painful, but feels SO good when it's over.

[theiFyoU]

02:07 PM on 04/10/2012

St Reagan thought the hundred thousandairs needed to pay more?
What a communistic socialist.

[mate556]

02:01 PM on 04/10/2012

I don't know how many time it has to be said. Reagan wouldn't survive the first round of primaries in todays GOP. He is a center right guy, he is a hollywood elite etc etc etc. The closest thing we have to Reagan is Obama and the GOP hates him.

[cllng1foto]

03:14 PM on 04/10/2012

The closest thing we have to Reagan is Obama? What planet are you from. Obama wishes he had a fraction of Reagan's principles and patriotism. Well maybe not, considering Obama's actions, he doesn't care about principles or patriotism.

[mate556]

04:02 PM on 04/10/2012

Oh that is hilarious. Lets see, Iran Contra, deregulation, Union busting, setting up the trickily down economics that never trickled down and is significantly responsible for the economic problems we are now in. And the list could go on and on. I have no doubt of the man's patriotism, but that could be negated by all the damage he did to this country. To say that man had principles is laughable.

I was comparing Obama to him because between the rest of the candidates, Gingrich, Romney, Santorum, Paul. If you play Reagan's tapes and interviews, he agrees the most with Obama.

[Feurio]

08:43 PM on 04/11/2012

What principles? He promised fiscal conservatism and increased the national debt enormously.

He promised accountability but his administration made a record in convictions.

Patriotism is easy to fake. Politicians and businessmen do it all the time.

[hhl482]

01:47 PM on 04/10/2012

Wow! I'm impressed that Dutch would even open mail from someone earning only 6 figures. Today's republic party doesn't listen to poor people.

[wlcd]

01:33 PM on 04/10/2012

Harry Truman was right when he said: "If you want to live like a Republican, vote Democratic."
History has demonstrated trickle down economics does not work.

[amluvinit2]

01:12 PM on 04/10/2012

They should play this over the air waves non stop until election day.

[Char60]

01:52 PM on 04/10/2012

For sure!

[jesocr]

01:05 PM on 04/10/2012

Even the Republican hero couldn't get anything thru this Congress.

[good4you]

12:51 PM on 04/10/2012

LOL...why is the "right" always so wrong? Even their HERO Reagan says so from his grave ! Obama is just too smart for the "right" !

[DazedandConfused]

12:49 PM on 04/10/2012

Reagan left us the legacy of supply-side economics: If we cut tax rates, the lower tax rates will spur the economy such that tax revenues will increase or be maintained. There is no empirical evidence to support this theory. Even Laffer believes that the reason that tax revenues increased somewhat (though not enough to offset lower tax rates) was the elimination of tax loopholes, not the reduction in tax rates. And it's why Reagan had to shift gears pretty quickly and start raising taxes. But somehow the GOP has managed to keep this fallacious economic theory alive and well. But, hey, it SOUNDS good. (I can eat all I want. And lose weight. I'm all for that!)

[consindenial]

12:39 PM on 04/10/2012

How dare you use Reagan against the conservatives that idolize him?

[WowJones]

12:32 PM on 04/10/2012

Will the real Ronald Reagan please stand up, please stand up.