Even in death journalists still smear President Reagan
Gerard Jackson
I am constantly making the observation that leftist journalists just cannot help themselves. No matter how mundane, sensitive or solemn the subject matter they feel impelled to soil it with their misconceptions and prejudices.
President Reagan's death is, unfortunately, no exception to the left's dismal rule. Marian Wilkinson could not resist slinging discredited accusations at Reagan (President who made Americans feel good, Sydney Morning Herald, 7 June).
She charged him with implementing "large tax cuts skewed to the wealthy, slashing welfare programs and deregulating the US economy…" Overlooked by Wilkinson is the historical fact that President Kennedy also implemented large tax cuts that could be interpreted by the malicious and the ignorant as being "skewed to the wealthy".
Despite Wilkinson's dishonest insinuation that tax cuts were at the expense of the poor, the better off actually paid more in taxes. In 1980 the top 1 per cent of earners paid 19 per percent of Federal incomes taxes. By 1988 this had risen to 27.5 per cent.
Tax revenues actually grew during Reagan's presidency, though they did fall in the recession year of 1981. However, tax revenue continued to rise from 1981 and did so in every subsequent year. By 1989 they were 65 per cent higher than in 1981, with revenue from income taxes rising by 56 per cent.
It's a pity that Wilkinson chose to ignore these facts in favour of painting a dishonest picture of Reagan's tax cuts. As for deregulating the economy — what the hell was wrong with that?
Wilkinson then turned to the deficit — don't they always — stating that it was the "largest budget deficit in history when Reagan insisted on massively lifting defence spending to stare down the Russians".
Once again, it's what partisan journalists don't tell us that really matters. The deficit peaked at 6.2 per cent in 1983 after a steep recession, after which it trended down, reaching about 3 per cent in 1988. So when Reagan left office the deficit was 2.9 per cent, about the same size as the deficit he inherited from Carter. (Incidentally, from 1933-1940 President Roosevelt's deficits averaged 3.5 per cent of GDP).
Like all critics of Reagan Wilkinson turned a blind eye to the role that the Democratic controlled Congress played in lifting spending. If the Democrats had exercised the kind of constraint they piously demand of other, when it suits them, the average annual budget deficits would have been $30 billion.
Also ignored by Wilkinson was the Reagan boom, the 18 million jobs it created and the general rise in living standards. As JFK said: "A rising tide lifts all boats". Instead, she said the period was marked by "an ugly greed-is-good mentality", how original, and that Reagan was to blame for the 1987 stock market crash.
The only thing she managed to prove here is that she is a bigoted economic illiterate.
Wilkinson's view that Reagan only increased defence spending so as to "stare down the Russians" is as absurd as her economic comments. Reagan had made it clear for years that he intended to bury the Soviet Union when he told Richard Allen, who would become his first national security adviser, that "Some people think I'm simplistic, but there's a difference between being simplistic and being simple. My theory of the Cold War is that we win and they lose."
I guess Reagan's attitude would be considered too judgmental and simple-minded by sophisticated journalists mired in hypocrisy and moral relativism.
To take Wilkinson seriously one would have to totally ignore the vital fact that from day one of his presidency Reagan, in league with Thatcher and Pope John Paul II, worked to bring down the Soviet Union. And he did so without a shot being fired.
It's a thorough disgrace that Wilkinson apparently knows nothing of Reagan's anti-Soviet strategy, even though it is well documented. Perhaps her ignorance, as well as her evident bigotry, explains why she stated that Reagan had "renewed [the] ideological battle against the Soviet Union.
That particular piece of outright stupidity suggests that until Reagan arrived there existed an unofficial ideological truce between the Soviet Union and the democracies. Utter tripe. The Soviets were always relentless in their fight against the West, and the '70s provided a particularly graphic example of their determination.
From 1975 until 1980 Cambodia, Mozambique, Laos, South Vietnam, Nicaragua, Somalia, Angola, Ethiopia, Afghanistan came under Soviet domination. It was President Reagan who first stopped the Soviet advance and then started to roll it back until the Soviet Union disintegrated.
Considering Reagan's stunning victory over the Soviets the price in increased deficits and defence spending was nothing compared with the incalculable payoff. And still bigoted ingrates like Wilkinson try to diminish his memory and his achievements. Fortunately the freed peoples of Eastern Europe have not forgotten, nor are they likely to, what Reagan did for them.
Wilkinson charged Reagan with accusing "Black single mothers were welfare queens in designer jeans squandering government money". This is a vile slander for which any decent newspaper would have fired her.
Reagan was never heard by anyone of ever uttering a racist slur, and to state otherwise makes Wilkinson a foul liar.
During his presidential campaign against Carter, Reagan referred to a Chicago "welfare queen" who had 30 addresses, 12 social security numbers and 80 names and had cheated welfare out $150,000 a year. There was not a mention, nor a hint, of race.
It turned out that Reagan was wrong: this particular "welfare queen" had only four aliases and had cheated social security out of $8000 a year. The reason that this gaffe didn't hurt him with voters is that they understood what he was really saying about wastes and genuine need.
One has to wonder what goes on in the sewer-like minds of some of our journalists when they take a gaffe like that and try to twist it into a viciously wicked smear.
The following articles reveal in detail Wilkinson's political bigotry and dishonest reporting.
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Gerard Jackson is Brookes' economics editor
BrookesNews.Com
Monday 14 June 2004