With all of the rhetoric flying from the mouths of the GOP children in Congress over the raising of the National Debt Limit, you would think that the core of their political belief was at stake. It is. But rather than the debt limit being the problem, the myth of Ronald Reagan being a fiscal conservative leader who stood firm and never compromised his principals is on the line.
It appears that Ronald Reagan was the only adult in the room in the fall of 1987 when Congress was up to the same old tricks. Below is what President Reagan had to say in his weekly radio address on September 26,1987.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6nNJiJsm70[/youtube]
“Congress consistently brings the Government to the edge of default before facing its responsibility. This brinkmanship threatens the holders of government bonds and those who rely on Social Security and veterans benefits. Interest rates would skyrocket, instability would occur in financial markets, and the Federal deficit would soar. The United States has a special responsibility to itself and the world to meet its obligations. It means we have a well-earned reputation for reliability and credibility – two things that set us apart from much of the world.” — President Ronald Reagan, September 26, 1987
So the myth of Ronald Reagan doesn’t really match up with the facts; just like the current rhetoric from the GOP.
Reagan ran up massive debt, raised taxes on the middle class, and tripled the national debt. But the one principal Reagan did stick to was paying those bills on time. Like President Obama, Ronald Reagan had a real problem with the political gamesmanship of the debt limit debate and played the role of an adult in the room.
So to the childish Congressman Eric Cantor, the weepy John Boehner, and the rest of the GOP Tea Party radicals I offer these words from author Robert Fulghum, “All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten:”
All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.
Think what a better world it would be if we all – the whole world – had cookies and milk at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.
QE3 & the Debt Ceiling: Obama Bails Out Empire
What is behind the debt ceiling debate, and Bernanke’s announcement of QE III, is President Obama, a British puppet, and his Wall Street controlled allies in the Congress drawing the United States further into the bailout of the foreign bankrupt monetary institutions of the Empire. Glass-Steagall must be restored and Obama removed from office. There are no other options.
http://www.larouchepac.com/node/18765