“You know, Ron Reagan’s fiscal record was not so great…” claimed Karen Tumulty, national political correspondent for Time magazine. Tumulty was a guest on CNN’s ‘Your $$$$$’ October 13, providing political analysis on the economic policy proposals of the presidential candidates.
The segment was titled “Fear Factor.” Christine Romans, began with the observation that there is a political party that believes, “government needs to expand its reach to protect citizens from catastrophe.” No, Romans assured us, “We are not talking about terrorism, we are talking about the economy.”
Co-host Bill Tucker said Democrats were “focusing on American insecurities in regard to health care, housing and college costs.” In contrast, Tumulty said that generally, Republicans believed that the economy was just fine. Then she questioned Reagan’s fiscal record.
Tumulty, like most of her peers at Time did not understand the dynamic impact of supply side economics. Reagan’s economic philosophy [1] of lowering taxes and deregulation produced an increase of national production by some 30 percent. This was like adding the entire output of the 1980 West German economy [2] to the GDP of the
Tumulty’s critique was not unique for Time. She was continuing the pattern set in 1992 when John Greenwald wrote in Time [3] where “the middle class foundered, and many of the poor went under” during Reagan’s term. Tumulty and Greenwald ignored Reagan’s fiscal record where the 25 percent cut in tax [4] rates helped produce a 20 percent rise in per capita income [5] and the creation of 18 million new jobs [6].
President Reagan’s fiscal record produced record breaking results [2] and was overlooked by CNN and ‘Time.’ There was no guest on ‘Your $$$$$’ to debate that the current economy is strong [7] and to present the apparently positive, Reagan-like argument of lower taxes favored by Republicans [8].
The late Robert L. Bartley, editor emeritus, outlined the economic success of the Reagan years in “The Seven Fat Years and How To Do It Again.” He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom [9] and Pulitzer Prize. Bartley provided a simple explanation of the fiscal policy embraced by Republicans:
Lower taxes increases treasury receipts [10] and increases the wealth of every American.
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Jack Yoest, a freelancer for the Business & Media Institute, is president of Management Training of DC, LLC [11] and teaches business at the