Hooray for Hollywood!

I can’t stand Obama!!! This is off topic but watch this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJrBhtnQ42U

IDIOTS WILL ROMANTICIZE ANYTHING…ASK AN ADDICT!
Great article Rev. Amy…YOU ROCK!

I didn’t know whether to laugh or throw up…I kinda just gagged and gasped…sheeeesh!
This has gotta look good for Johnny Mac…no?

Un B LIE vable.

Oh and yes, that title just screams out to you to want to rush and see this flick.

No doubt Ayers obviously wants to be remembered for his actions. And Hollywood always finds someone to glorify any action. Entertainers of all kinds. Yes, these are the folks who see themselves in Obama and we’re supposed to be thrilled with these kind of people running our country, huh.

don’t worry Ayers, you movie will definiely attract some to want to see it and if you’re lucky, maybe you can reprise you little group, with the newly inspired Obamabots to this kind of action.

Now, do we think Obama will want his friend to make money for his terrorist actions, on his name, being associated with. Gee, I can’t wait to see how this plot unfolds.

We should be suprised at nothing anymore especially from Hollywood. They’ve got no morals most of them.

THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO NEEDS MORE EXPOSURE… EXCELLENT SUMMARY OF ACORN/AYERS/OBAMA/FANNIE/FINANCIAL MELDOWN STORY..!!

We can make a star out of Stanley Kurtz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjDXys4JSMw

NO WAY YOU CAN CLEAN UP AYERS…NO WAY! anymore than you can clean up McVeigh…Aaaaand it is the same thing

Michelle worked with Bernadette Dohrn.

Not seeing much about that in the MSM. Of course, they would dismiss it as nothing.

It’s the perfect (Hollywood)storm of colorful characters, confusing history, and current interest topic.
The bad part isn’t making a movie about them, but writing history, because truly all these communications build lasting beliefs. I’m on a new hobby of making computer games, this takes quite a lot of writing although in a good game the writing should not dominate the view and action–it is a bully pulpit. It also is like other commercial activities, sometimes it’s hard to avoid the pull of money.
Since we will no doubt be subjected to any number of rehashes of the Obamanation, I think the best plan would be to try to make an uplifting moral example rather than another gangsta rap. Ayers and Dohrn deserve to be made out like the MacBeths, in my opinion.

Don’t “we” have a “money bags” like a SOROS, who can make a 527 about this stuff?

OT to fellow PUMAs:

Are you having more and more respect for Mac and Palin as we get to know them? I am! And less and less respect for their adversaries as their desperation level grows.

Zogby poll - dead heat between candidates
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/another-dead-heat-poll/

“Yeah we did some foolish things. I can’t quite imagine putting a bomb in a building today, but the way things are in the world, I can’t imagine entirely dismissing the possibility either…”

This might be OK with me too so long as he did it as a suicide bomber in the Mojave.

thank you for the in-depth analysis, amy. I wonder when hollywood would romanticize osama bin laden. so far, they dont have the guts, but I would’nt put it past them to do that. Its very simple - every extremist organisation wants obama to win. my question is why? Unfortunately, the right labels our extreme-left as un-patriotic, and it seems to be true. In this election cycle, center-left candidates like hillary clinton was sidelined. amazing!

the hollywood propaganda machine is at it again!

yeah baby,lets all of the bobo’s friends get together and spin truthyness into a movie!

well, we’ll have a definite item to boycott if it ever sees the light of day.

bill ayers should have done hard time for what he did….wonder if the movie will have the part where daddy buys him a mistrial and a walk.

just saying.

OT brand new! Way to go Mac announcing this last night! Notice they call it a Resurgence plan. Clever!

For Immediate Release
October 8, 2008

ICYMI: McCain-Palin Campaign Conference Call On The American Homeownership Resurgence Plan

“Senator McCain last night announced his initiative, the McCain Resurgence Plan, that has four very straightforward goals. Goal number one is to provide direct help to struggling homeowners, making sure they can stay in their homes with a manageable mortgage, avoid foreclosures and the damaging impact that has on neighborhoods and property values in that area. It would also, in the process of refinancing, help them with their financial situation, and as a result, give some stability to the household spending in the overall economy.” — Doug Holtz-Eakin, Senior Policy Adviser

ARLINGTON, VA — Today, the McCain-Palin campaign held a press conference call with Doug Holtz-Eakin, McCain-Palin senior policy adviser, to discuss John McCain’s American Homeownership Resurgence Plan:

Doug Holtz-Eakin: “Senator McCain last night announced his initiative, the McCain Resurgence Plan, that has four very straightforward goals. Goal number one is to provide direct help to struggling homeowners making sure they can stay in their homes with a manageable mortgage, avoid foreclosures and the damaging impact that has on neighborhoods and property values in that area. It would also, in the process of refinancing, help them with their financial situation and, as a result, give some stability to the household spending in the overall economy.

“Second thing is it would provide, to the mortgage market, lower interest rates. If history was a guide, we’d see a spread of about 160 basis points above government interest rates to the mortgage market. That would put interest rates in the low five percent. Mortgage rates are above that right now. Providing this kind of financing would stabilize housing values and obviously take some stress off the pressures downward in the economy. Having a stabilized housing market would, in turn, combine with the purchase of these mortgages to stabilize the values that are underneath mortgage-backed securities and all the housing-related derivatives that have been plaguing the valuation of balance sheets in the financial sector. And so by starting with the homeowner and working up you accomplish some of the objectives of the financial stabilization plans that we’ve seen come out of Congress and proposed by the administration in recent weeks. Senator McCain beli eves this is exactly the right kind of policy: provide direct help to homeowners and, at the same time, support the financial markets and keep them from further damaging the availability of credit to Main Street America, one of the real threats to the economy at this point it time.

“The initiative would rely on authorities that have been provided in recent months by the Congress. There’s $300 billion worth of refinance capacity at the FHA at this point. That can be combined with the statutory capacity at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are now owned by the federal government for all practical purposes, to purchase mortgages. If Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac bought 80% of the mortgage, you could leverage that $300 billion in financing tremendously. And there’s also the $700 billion that was provided to the Treasury by the Congress. There’s direct purchase authority in there that would allow to augment these as well, although, it may be useful to reserve that for other purposes.

“Mechanically the initiative is very simple. A homeowner would initiate the process by calling a mortgage broker or other originator and basically saying ‘I’d like to refinance my home.’ They would start the underwriting process, verify incomes, this is an opportunity as well to make sure the program has in it appropriate checks to make sure that government money is not being given to folks who are not primary homeowners, who don’t have adequate income, or otherwise, in the initial purchase of their home didn’t provide valid information. These authorities could then be used to retire the existing loan. The FHA would issue a guaranteed thirty year fixed-rate mortgage at a manageable interest rate. The homeowner would stay in the home, their financial burden would be relieved, the valuation of the existing loan would be resolved, there would no longer be a threat of default or diminished capacity to repay. That would stabilize financial markets, and t he taxpayers’ contribution would be, in some cases the difference between the values of those two loans, something which would be the necessity for taxpayer contribution.

“Senator McCain thinks this is the best way to go forward. He’s obviously been personally very concerned about the problems facing the economy. He has participated, as I think everyone on this call knows, extensively in the process of taking the initial proposal by the administration to directly purchase Wall Street securities shaping it in a way that it was both possible to get it through Congress in a bi-partisan fashion, and also had it augmented with the adequate taxpayer protections, some oversight and transparency. This would take the authorities that have now come through and further target them in a way that he thinks would accomplish the purposes of financial stabilization but also to provide some relief to homeowners, near-term stimulus to the overall economy, and lay out a path where he can then turn to his initiatives in taxes, in energy, healthcare, trade to provide job creation in the American economy and a path forward out of this ter rible crisis.”

Listen To The Conference Call

As little as Obama says he knows about the terrorist who lives in his own neighborhood, William Ayers, tells the world what Obama knows about national security. Nothing.

This is funny….Glenn Beck presents the obama national anthem….

http://youtube.com/watch?v=l46t_nrySg4

I know this is off topic, but you know those planetarium earmarks that McCain was talking about last night that Obama asked for. Here is an interesting article about them:

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2008/10/obama-adler-on-defense-after-mccain-criticism.html

Yo Obama!!

Why not let more in?

HUD: Five Million Fraudulent Mortgages Held by Illegals

One illegal alien was arrested this year in Tucson after allegedly using a stolen social security number to buy two homes and rack up over $780,000 in bad debt.

Some five million fraudulent home mortgages are in the hands of illegal aliens, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

http://kfyi.com/pages/local_news.html?feed=118695&article=4364653

What are the other polls showing? I’m afraid to look.

that is interestink NCGal….very interestink…no?
thanks for the link

Here in Virgina McCain voters have gone underground. They don’t let anyone know they are voting for McCain because they’ve had so many of moveon.org’s people here and BO’s supporters(one in the same)call you a ‘racist’ and an ‘inbred’ ‘low information’ voter. He won’t know what hit him in November–it’s way beyond the Bradley effect and he did it to himself by using the race card so much that nobody cares if there’s riots in the streets. It didn’t work with all the working class states Hillary won and it won’t work with the hard working America loving citizens here.

Larry Johnson, where is the whitey tape. Its needed now. What happened to your two reliable sources who said it would be held til October? Can you update us please

Q. What do Barack Obama and Osama Bin Laden have in common?

A. They both have friends that bombed the Pentagon.

These Hollywood jerks never cease to amaze me. They lead highly dysfunctional lives, then try to tell us who we should vote for in the Presidential election.

Now they want to tell a romantic story about domestic terrorists?

How on Earth does Barack plan to win the loyalty of our troops when he kicks off his political career in the home of an American terrorist and refers to him as respectable?

Barack Obama is such a joke. I’m so pissed that people actually support this clown.

We could have had Hillary.

Well after reading this we all need a laugh.

Wedding gown

A woman married three times walked into a bridal shop one day and told the
sales clerk that she was looking for a wedding gown for her fourth wedding.

‘Of course, madam,’ replied the sales clerk, ‘exactly what type and color
are you looking for?’

The bride to be said: ‘A long frilly white dress with a veil.’

The sales clerk hesitated a bit, then said, ‘Please don’t take this the
wrong way, but gowns of that nature is considered more appropriate for
brides who are being married the first time - for those who are a bit more
innocent, if you know what I mean? Perhaps ivory or sky blue would be nice?’

‘Well,’ replied the customer, a little peeved at the clerk’s directness, ‘I
can assure you that a white gown would be quite appropriate. Believe it or
not, despite all my marriages, I remain as innocent as a first-time bride.
You see, my first husband was so excited about our wedding, he died as we
were checking into our hotel. My second husband and I got into such a
terrible fight in the limo on our way to our honeymoon that we had that
wedding annulled immediately and never spoke to each other again.’

‘What about your third husband?’ asked the sales clerk.

‘That one was a Democrat,’ said the woman, ‘and every night, he just sat on
the edge of the bed and told me how good it was going to be, but nothing
ever happened.’

[ADMIN: GO BLATHER ON ANOTHER BLOG. YOU'RE DONE HERE.]

dave, Ayers is still on the table look harder.

OT– I got an official looking envelope in the mail telling me my bank wanted to reduce the interest rate on my home mortgage and also they could reduce the number of years left on the mortgage, and help me to save a ‘LOT’ of money”. The name of my bank was on both the envelope and the letter which was initialed. I called my bank and they said they knew nothing about it and recommended I report it to authorities.

The exposure of Obama and his sordid affiliations is just beginning. Ayers is just the leading edge and the trail will lead all the way to Nov 4.

Obama’s education advisor, Linda Darling-Hammond, who promotes a reparations approach to education reform will be debating McCain’s education adviser, Lisa Graham Keegan, on Oct. 21.

The education advisors to the two candidates will face off in a debate at Teachers College, the venerable education school at Columbia University in New York. The debate, which begins at 4 p.m. PDT, will be webcast by Education Week. The moderator will be Susan Fuhrman, the president of Teachers College.

latimesblogs.latimes.com/thehomeroom/2008/09/mccain-obama-ad.html

Steve Diamond in his excellent blog Global Labor and Politics which is frequently cross posted here at NQ has written extensively about Linda Darling-Hammond and Bill Ayers promotion of a reparations approach to education reform.

Steve writes, …
“In 2006 Professor Gloria Ladson-Billings of the University of Wisconsin, the then president of the American Education Research Association (AERA), the nation’s leading School of Education professional association, proposed a new policy to tackle the problems of America’s public schools: the repayment of centuries of “education debt” that allegedly is owed to people of color as a result of slavery and discrimination. She rooted the concept in the literature supporting reparations for slavery.

In 2007 Linda Darling-Hammond, a prominent and respected professor at the Stanford University School of Education, endorsed the same idea in an article in The Nation. In late 2007 Darling-Hammond was named an education advisor to the Obama campaign. In February 2008 Darling-Hammond issued a blueprint for education reform by the next President that set as its #1 priority the repayment of the “education debt,” as proposed originally by Ladson-Billings.

Bill Ayers has endorsed the idea of repayment of the “education debt.” Ayers is now a Vice President-elect (Division B: Curriculum Studies) of the AERA.”

Hannity, Dick Morris and O’Reilly need to be made aware of the Oct. 21 education debate and expose the reparations/education debt angle.

Palin hits Obama on wanting to meet with Ahmadinejad, hits on Ayers, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEkrfgXe-pc

I hate everything the Democratic party stands for. They have downplayed the actions of someone who has done wrong to our country. Ten years I have been in the military, and I never thought I would see the day when people make excuses for the same type of individuals we are fighting overseas. Terrorist. It doesnt matter what color they are, what gender they may be. But William Ayers is a domestic terrorist. This is the biggest slap in the face to every single goddamn individual that make sacrifices for a country, that its own people, would rather downplay a persons actions, to put them in the White House.

I dont know whose country this is any longer. But its not the one I raised my right hand for.For three months, I have been going through radiation therapy because of a choice and decision, while deployed. It was to some, a bad choice,because I could of had a easy fix by having the surgery, but I was unable, didnt have the heart to, and just could not leave my unit and section, and my soldiers hanging. It was personal pride. I would rather stand for something, than nothing at all. And one of the reasons I have so much time on my hands now while I continue treatment.

But I never regretted my choice. I never questioned my decision. Until today.

The company I am in, is attached to our hospital. Over a year ago, the Army created units all throughout the various bases that sole purpose is treat the soldiers that come back from being deployed that get hurt or injured downrange. It’s a wonderful program and there main priority is you. Its called WTB or Warriors in Transition. Every avenue is available to us, the best of care, counseling and helping the families deal with there loved ones, family or friends. Basicly how to cope.

Despite there injuries, despite there circumstances, we survived with no questions or doubts in our minds. Because we volunteered to do something that means the world to so many. That is the reason why we understand the concept of not leaving until the mission is completed. Yes, people come home different from what they were. But the job is to keep and ensure the safety of our country on foreign soil and domestic. It’s called pride. In your country, in yourself, and in the people.

And in saying that, its hard to hear individuals make goddamn excuses towards the same type of individuals that has done the same thing and it makes no difference were you are, were you live or the fact of what you may be doing now. The Democratic party gave William Ayers and those producers a green light in regards to what he has done. I will never forgive them for this. I will never forgive them for this.

This is the biggest slap in the face and the biggest “fuck you” they could of given. And I got there message loud and clear.

Calls Americans ‘My Fellow Prisoners’

you decide

The New York Times today said John McCain’s campaign is appaling. The New York Times endorsed John McCain back in the beginning of the year. John McCain’s campaign has been so appaling, that he’s even lost his supporters.

By attacking ACORN, the GOP is again suppressing and disenfranchising the African American voters just like they have during every election cycle. This goes hand in hand with Sarah Palin’s campaign speeches filled with racial overtones, which more and more news organisations are now reporting. Sarah Palin is taking a page out of Lee Atwater and Bill Clinton’s playbook. Shame on Sarah Palin for using Senator Obama’s race to scare the American people.

I don’t get it: how does beginning one’s political career in the living room of an unrepentant domestic terrorist reflect badly on a man running for president? End sarcasm.

These are truly the bizarro world days - the era of Bush brings a world economic collapse, creating the perfect conditions for the liberal left to install Barry - the mirror-image of Bush.

lol they actually think that anyone takes them serious… The Obama times needs to put a sock on it.

Berg IS Outraged: That Obama and DNC hide behind legal issues. More—————
http://www.obamacrimes.com/

Hollywood is where they belong, not the White House.

Obama is now saying that he never had ties with ACORN. Here is an article by Stanley Kurtz:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTNiN2YwMmQ4Njc2MzE4ZDUxYWVlYTA1NzZlMmY3YmM=

Fox says they are still going after Obama on Ayers.

Brace yourselves to hear a lot more squealing as the pig is stuck and stuck again over the next four weeks. I think the strategy should be - when they squeal and cry racism, escalate and amplify!

FF, your pathetic. Acorn is comitting fraud in over 8 states. FBI just raided their office.
It has nothing to do with and everything to do with Fair elections.
Your racist. Stop projecting your insecuritys on us.
Should’n't you be praying to Obamagod

All of a sudden people are going nuts with the racism stuff. I have just been to like 5 different boards and it is the same thing. You are a racist if you vote for McCain.

How can any SANE person take those kind of insults. They are PURE HATEFULL. It makes me sick to my stomach.

Hooray for Hollywood…this election is fast becoming a Hollywood-style political choice. Do Americans want Jimmy Stewart or John Wayne sleeping in the White House? But is it really that simple?
See: http://www.thecjpoliticalreport.com/the_bane_of_our_existence.htm.

Try this logic: If Obama were white, and everything else were the same, would pointing out his affiliations with unsavory characters still be racist? Hard to image how. So it is nothing more than Obama’s race that makes revelations of his sordid past life racist eh? Just say it isn’t racist because we are attacking his white half

The latest on Berg vs Obama and DNC.. The actual court dockets: http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court/paedce/case_no-2:2008cv04083/case_id-281573/

I just had a horrible, nightmarish thought - PLEASE somebody set me straight!

What if 0bama’s OCTOBER SURPRISE is already set up? What if the republican 527s have a mountain of dirt on barky, ready to expose in the last couple weeks leading up to the election and ALL the networks refuse to air their ads? I read somewhere that some (smaller) media outfits have already refused to run some 527 ads against barky, saying they have to run candidate ads but NOT 527s - any lawyers here? Is that true?

The “truth squads,” the lawsuits and mainly the threat of lawsuits and investigations into anyone who says anything negative about The One have already set the scene. What if barky’s campaign already has agreements from all the 0bamamedia that they’ll “at the last minute” have a bout of conscience and decide to “not run negative political ads?”

The media’s recent “desire” for everybody to “play nice” since the Ayers stuff has come on the scene makes me really really suspicious of how this is gonna play out.

I’m really hoping I’m just paranoid……

OT: Corsi on with Hannity now, talking about Obama and Odinga.

Yea! FBI now in Independence MO looking over the ACORN voter registration fraud. Forms now all stamped “SUSPENDED”. They are getting a lot of mail returned too showing the voter doesn’t live at the address…round file!

FOX DOING STORY ON ACORN. OMG OMG OMG THERE’S SO MUCH FRAUD BY OBAMA. HE’S THE MOST VILE POS ON THE PLANET.

Comment by MACCAIN REGRETS PALIN | 2008-10-08 16:02:03

FACT: MCCAIN WAS INVOLVED IN KEATING 5

FACT: OBAMA HAS NEVER CHEATED TAXPAYERS OUT OF THEIR MONEY LIKE MCCAIN DID IN THE KEATING 5 SCANDAL

===========================================

You terrified, desperate loser…Obama is a CRIMINAL. Look up Donald Young. How about Fannie Mae? How about ACORN? How about Hillary, Alice Palmer, etc.? There’s a ton of money MISSING from his little enterprise with BILL (I BOMBED THE PENTAGON) AYERS. Obama takes illegal donations from terrorists, including Hamas. I am just scratching the surface loser. Obama is trash and belongs in Federal Prison. He WILL get it. I hope the Feds get him. Oh yeah, and some day maybe he will show us his BIRTH CERTIFICATE….ROFLMAO. Go away you paid troll. You make us puke and you’re a moron.

Comment by CamdenRave | 2008-10-08 16:26:58

May I quote you? “You make us puke and you’re a moron”. Honestly, that’s not very nice. Just calm down and try to state your points. Nothing you described in your rant makes Obama a criminal. I mean, he committed crimes against Hillary and Alice Palmer? Come on. What crimes did he commit against them?

===============================================

1) He illegally had Alice Palmer removed from the ballot so that he ran unchallenged.

2) The caucus fraud and cheating consisted of thousands of illegal acts. It’s against the law to threaten, harass, abuse, issue death threats, etc. against a human being. No worries, it’s all coming out soon.

3) His illegal campaign donations are being investigated by the Feds as we speak.

4) Rezko is going to sing.

5) Donald Young.

6) Money missing from Ayer’s BS school nonsense. Lots of it.

All of those acts are illegal.

I’m sooo over Hollywood. I’d rather clean my toilet than watch the tv.

Comment by CamdenRave | 2008-10-08 16:53:50

“I am unclear on why you think you can tell people what to post???”

It was a suggestion. Treating people with respect is just good manners.

===============================================

Obama has crapped on this country and treated this country like his personal toilet. He doesn’t get our respect. But, then again, I love this country more than life. I can’t watch the lies, cheating, stealing, corruption and yes CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR. Also, I was addressing an Obama paid blogger/troll. They don’t seem to treat US with respect either. Sorry.

Testing

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

With Obama ahead in the polls, foreign money flees the country; BHO’s tax hikes bad for business, jobs

Prepare for the Worst
By Peter Ferrara
Published 10/8/2008 12:08:08 AM

Just two weeks ago, a book on economic policy was released that will be a classic for the ages. Entitled The End of Prosperity, by Art Laffer, Steve Moore, and Peter J. Tanous, the book explains in full detail the economic disaster that will befall America if it takes a sharp left turn to neo-socialism under the leadership of the far left President Barack Obama, the ultraleft Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid with 60 liberal Democrat Senators, and their pal the ultraliberal Howard Dean heading the Democrat party.

Indeed, one of the insights of the book is that a major factor already tanking the stock market and leading foreign capital to flee America is the threat of the economic policies promised by Obama. Obama proposes increases in every major federal tax, on savers, investors, employers, small business, big business, and anyone who would start a business. Obama also promises to add additional federal spending of almost $1.5 trillion over the next four years, including a new global war on poverty in which Obama would tax Americans and send the money to the UN to spend worldwide (already introduced by Obama in legislation). That would be on top of all the spending increases already scheduled for our exploding entitlements and other programs. Obama also promises a massive increase in regulatory controls, even though government regulation is already estimated to cost America over $1 trillion per year, about $8,000 in lost output for every U.S. household. Then there is Obama’s attack on free trade and promises of protectionist trade policies that contributed so much to the Great Depression.

As the authors show, these retrograde economic policies are intellectually indefensible. They do not offer forward looking change, but would take us back to the policies of the disastrous 1970s and even worse 1930s. They would ultimately produce a deep, long term decline in America’s standard of living, particularly for the middle class and working people. America would actually fall behind countries around the world that, exactly contrary to the left wing swing of the Democrats, have been racing to adopt precisely the hugely successful Reagan supply side policies of low tax rates, less government spending, deregulation, and anti-inflation monetary policies.

The Reagan Economic Boom
When President Reagan entered office in 1981, succeeding Jimmy Carter who had an overwhelmingly liberal Democrat Congress, the American economy was in shambles. Inflation had reached 11.6% in 1979 and 13.5% in 1980, a devastating 25% increase in prices in just two years. The prime interest rate had reached 21.5% in 1980, with home mortgage interest rates soon climbing as high as an absurd 14.7%. Unemployment began an upward climb during the Carter years that eventually peaked at over 10% in 1982.

The poverty rate actually started increasing in 1978 during the Carter years, eventually climbing by an astounding 33%, from 11.4% to 15.2%. A fall in real median family income that began in 1978 snowballed to a decline of almost 10% by 1982. Average real family income for the lowest income 20% declined by 14.2%. Indeed, during the Carter years (1977 to 1980), real income declined for every quintile, from the lowest 20% to the highest 20%. Real average income of U.S. households was, in fact, in a long-term decline, down rather than up from 1970 to 1980.

The Reagan economic policy to reverse this economic devastation consisted of the following:

1. Tax cuts to restore incentives for economic growth, involving first a reduction in the top income tax rate of 70% down to 50%, which probably produced a net increase in revenue by itself, and then a 25% across the board reduction in income tax rates for everyone. The 1986 tax reform then reduced tax rates further, leaving just two rates, 28% and 15%;

2. Spending reductions, including a $31 billion cut in spending in 1981, close to 5% of the federal budget then, or the equivalent of about $150 billion in spending cuts for the year today. In constant dollars, non-defense discretionary spending declined by 14.4% from 1981 to 1982, and by 16.8% from 1981 to 1983. Moreover, in constant dollars, this non-defense discretionary spending never returned to its 1981 level for the rest of Reagan’s two terms! By 1988, this spending was still down 14.4% from its 1981 level in constant dollars. Even with the Reagan defense buildup, total Federal spending declined from a high of 23.5% of GDP in 1983 to 21.3% in 1988 and 21.2% in 1989. That’s a real reduction in the size of government relative to the economy of 10%;

3. Anti-inflation monetary policy restraining money supply growth;

4. Deregulation, which has now saved consumers an estimated $100 billion per year in lower prices. Reagan’s first executive order, in fact, eliminated price controls on oil and natural gas. Production soared, and the price of oil declined by over 50%;

5. Free trade, reflected in worldwide agreements to reduce tariff taxes.

This was the most astoundingly successful economic policy in U.S. history, turning around a rapidly declining economy into a raging economic boom. The Reagan recovery started in official records in November, 1982, and lasted 92 months without a recession until July, 1990, when the tax increases of the 1990 budget deal killed it. This set a new record for the longest peacetime expansion ever, the previous high in peacetime being 58 months.

During this 7 years, the economy grew by almost one-third, the equivalent of adding the entire economy of West Germany, the third largest in the world at the time, to the U.S. economy. In 1984 alone, real economic growth boomed by 6.8%, the highest in 50 years. Nearly 20 million new jobs were created during the boom, increasing U.S. civilian employment by almost 20%. Unemployment fell to 5.3% by 1989. Also in that year, labor force participation reached a record 66.5 percent, and a record 63 percent of the population was employed. Black labor force participation also hit a record 64.2 percent in 1989, with female labor force participation reaching an all-time record of 57.5 percent in 1990.

Real per capita disposable income increased by 18% from 1982 to 1989, meaning the American standard of living increased by almost 20% during the boom. The Carter decline in income for the bottom 20% of income earners was reversed, with average real household income for this group rising by 12.2% from 1983 to 1989. The poverty rate, which had started increasing during the Clinton years, declined every year from 1984 to 1989, dropping by one-sixth from its peak.

The shocking rise in inflation during the Carter years was also reversed. Spectacularly, inflation from 1980 was reduced by more than half by 1982, to 6.2%. It was cut in half again for 1983, to 3.2%. The prime rate was cut by two-thirds by 1987 to 8.2%, on its way down to 6.25% by 1992. New home mortgage rates also declined steadily, reaching 9.19% by 1988, on their way down to 8% by 1992. Note that opponents of the Reagan tax cuts had argued that they would increase interest rates.

The stock market more than tripled in value from 1980 to 1990, a larger increase than in any previous decade. Real personal assets rose by nearly $6 trillion, from $15.5 trillion in 1980 to $21.1 trillion in 1990, an increase of 36%. Total real private net worth rose by $4.3 trillion from 1980 to 1989, totaling $17.1 trillion in constant dollars, an increase of one-third.

Even with the Reagan tax cuts, total federal revenues doubled from 1980 to 1990, growing from $517.1 billion to $1,031 billion, or just over $1 trillion. In Reagan’s last budget year, fiscal 1989, the widely overballyhooed federal deficit had declined to $152.5 billion, about the same as a percent of GDP as in 1980. 2.9% compared to 2.8%. By 1989, the Soviet Union was collapsing. Reagan had won the Cold War without firing a shot, completing the most successful Presidency in U.S. history.

The 25 Year Reagan Boom
Laffer et. al point out that this Reagan recovery grew into a 25 year boom, with just slight interruptions by shallow, short recessions in 1990 and 2001. They write:

We call this period, 1982-2007, the twenty-five year boom — the greatest period of wealth creation in the history of the planet. In 1980, the net worth — assets minus liabilities — of all U.S. households and business…was $25 trillion in today’s dollars. By 2007…net worth was just shy of $57 trillion. Adjusting for inflation, more wealth was created in America in the twenty-five year boom than in the previous two hundred years.

They add, “The economy in real terms is almost twice as large today as it was in the late 1970s.” Moreover:

In 1967 only one in 25 families earned an income of $100,000 or more in real income (in 2004 dollars), whereas now almost one in four families do. The percentage of families with an income of more than $75,000 a year has more than tripled from 9 percent to almost 33 percent from 1967 to 2005.

In addition, “A poor family in 1979 was more likely to be rich by the early 1990s than to still be poor.” The authors cite a Congressional Budget Office study, backed up by a later Treasury Department study, finding that “from 1994 to 2004 Americans in the bottom 20 percent of income actually had the highest increase in incomes.” The authors continue,

When you track real families — real people — over time, you find that people who are poor at the start…have the biggest subsequent gains in income. Amazingly, the richer a person is…the smaller the subsequent income gains. Those in the top 1% actually lose income over time.

Or, as Nobel Prize winning economic historian Robert Fogel wrote in 2004, “In every measure that we have bearing on the standard of living…the gains of the lower classes have been far greater than those experienced by the population as a whole.” Under Reaganomics, the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten richer too.

The Kennedy Tax Cuts
Reagan was not the first or the last to adopt sweeping tax cuts to boost the economy. It has happened four, perhaps five, times in the last century, with virtually the same results every time. One of these was adopted under President John F. Kennedy, who cut the top tax rate from 91% to 70%, seeking as well a 30% across the board rate cut for everyone else. Compared to national income and the total budget, the Kennedy tax cut was three times larger than the Bush tax cut, which only reduced the top tax rate a measly 4.6 percentage points from 39.6% to 35%. Kennedy said,

Our true choice…is between two kinds of deficits — a chronic deficit of inertia, as the unwanted result of inadequate revenues and a restricted economy — or a temporary deficit of transition, resulting from a tax cut designed to boost the economy, produce revenues, and achieve a future budget surplus. The first type of deficit is a sign of waste and weakness — the second reflects an investment in the future.

Kennedy also said, “It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today, and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the tax rates….[A]n economy constrained by high tax rates will never produce enough revenue to balance the budget, just as it will never create enough jobs or profits.”

In response to the Kennedy tax cuts, the economy grew by 10% in just 2 years, with the annual economic growth rate increasing by 50%. More than 1 million jobs were created in the following 4 years, and unemployment fell to its lowest peacetime level in more than 30 years. Federal income tax revenues grew by 41% during those 4 years, with U.S News and World Report saying, “The unusual budget spectacle of sharply rising revenues following the biggest tax cut in history is beginning to astonish even those who pushed hardest for tax cuts in the first place.”

The End of Prosperity
Laffer et al. explain why they think the end is now near:

[W]e are now witnessing nearly all of the economic policy dials that were once turned toward growth being twisted back towards recession. [O]ur politicians in both parties, but especially the liberal Democrats, are getting everything wrong — tax policy, regulatory policy, monetary policy, spending policy, trade policy. We call this the assault on growth. The political class seems to be almost intentionally steering the United States economy into the abyss — and, to borrow a phrase from P.J. O’Rourke, the American electorate, alas, seems ready and willing to hand them the keys and the bottle of whiskey to do it.

Obama promises across the board tax increases, America’s corporate tax rates are already the second highest in the industrialized world, prices are already rising and the dollar is declining, America is turning its back on free trade, the federal budget is already spiraling out of control and entitlements threaten far worse, regulations already strangle energy production, producing high energy costs for the economy, cap and trade global warming regulations threaten to shut the economy down, unions calling for legal powers to force unionization, the left campaigns for costly but low quality socialized medicine, these are all indicators of a fatal economic heart attack for America. Laffer et al. explain what is behind the current financial crisis:

This list of economic body blows explains why, for the first time in years, hot capital is escaping over the borders out of the United States and flowing into China, India, Europe, and even Japan….[S]tarting in late 2007, foreigners started pulling their money out of the United States, and Americans started investing more abroad. Global investors are losing confidence in the U.S. The result is a falling stock market and a collapse of the dollar.

The threatened left-wing economic policies are all the more dangerous now because the rest of the world has shifted so sharply towards much lower tax rates and free markets, threatening to leave America in the dust as an uncompetitive wasteland mired in nostalgia for socialism. Since Reagan, income tax rates across the industrialized world have been cut by more than one-third, and corporate tax rates have been reduced by one-half. The flat tax has been adopted in 24 countries. Putin adopted a 13% rate for Russia that raises more revenue than the former system with a 50% top rate. From 1978 to 1998, China reduced its tax burden by two-thirds. A recent study found that “supply-side” countries that have cut their tax rates almost in half since the 1990s have grown three times as fast as countries that have raised taxes since that time.

It is, frankly, obvious that lower tax rates increase incentives for economic growth and productive activity, and that higher tax rates reverse such incentives. Nor is it hard to understand that increasing regulatory costs will slow the economy while reducing such costs will expand it. Obviously, ample supplies of low cost energy will help the economy, shortages of high cost energy will kill it. High government spending is clearly not good for the economy, lower government spending is. We know how to create an economic boom, and we know what policies will lead to economic disaster. The Left denies these obvious truths only because it craves more government power. If America does not wake up to what is happening, there will be much suffering through a long dark night.

Peter Ferrara serves as Director of Entitlement and Budget Policy for the Institute for Policy Innovation, and General Counsel of the American Civil Rights Union. He formerly served in President Reagan’s White Office of Policy Development, and as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States under the first President Bush. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
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