The GOP worships Ronald Reagan the way liberals adore Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Just about every speaker at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) enthusiastically invoked their idol. Or, as MSNBC’s The Ed Show puts it, fervently tried to “out-Reagan” each other.
But was Ronald Reagan who conservatives think he is? Bruce Bartlett — an adviser to both the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush White House — doubts they’d even recognize him. In fact, Bartlett told Ed Shultz on Monday’s edition of The Ed Show that today’s GOP would have “booed” Reagan “out of the crowd.”
I think he [Reagan] probably would be booed out of the crowd. If only because he gave amnesty to illegal aliens back in 1986. Nativists like Representative Steve King routinely denounce Reagan for that.
And what else would today’s conservatives have had to say about Reagan? Bartlett suspects they’d do an awful lot of denouncing.
They would have denounced him for raising taxes eleven times. They would have denounced him for raising the debt limit. They would have denounced him for running budget deficits. They would have denounced him for supporting labor unions. … And we are not even getting into all the liberal things that he did as governor such as signing the most liberal abortion law in the United States.
Wow. When Schultz suggests that perhaps the Tea Partiers at CPAC don’t know their history, Bartlett agrees.
Well, I guess they have completely forgotten about George W. Bush whom they defended to the heavens when he was in office.
Then he cuttingly adds:
Yes, they are really rather stupid and not very well read. To them Reagan is a distant figure in history.
Bartlett: CPAC would have “booed” Reagan “out of the room.”
Featured photo: Video screen grab/MSNBC.
Very true
This only shows what a gift Ronald Reagan was to the world and how much we miss him…
how much you might miss him .. his trickle down economic policies are still killing this country
I miss Reagan like I would is a severe case of hemorrhoids! The worst president in my lifetime !
Why do so you think destroying the Labor Movement and turning us into a third world country by giving our industrial base to the Japanese is a gift? And you look too young to be remembering Reagan. I am not, I am 59 and I lived through it.
“Immigration is not as big a problem in northern states like Wisconsin”
They don’t mind illegal Canadians.
I disagree about criticizing Ronnie for running a deficit…..after all Repubs don’t mind running deficits, they just don’t want to pay it back…..
Ronnie supported labor unions? Only if they weren’t air traffic controllers.
He was against unions for government workers, but supported unions in the private sector.
Well, (Reagan pause inserted) Ronald Reagan was President of The Screen Actors Guild. The largest Union in Hollywood. I would consider that supportive.
He was a democrat back then.
Bruce Bartlett was never an adviser to the Reagan White House; he was a congressional aide to Roger Jensen during the Reagan administration. I stopped reading after that because I could tell that this was not an honest piece of journalism but it was instead a piece of …
In 1987, Bartlett became a senior policy analyst in the White House Office of Policy Development, then headed by Gary Bauer.
Seems to me that you fit his description of a Republican quite well. I guess your idea of “an honest piece of journalism” is one that reflects your narrow and very uniformed view of a non-existent history.
Every result I found for a “Bruce Bartlett” Google search begins with “Reagan economic adviser….” not “aid to Roger Jensen.”
Are you using the same internet that I am using?
Nice try but no. Come back when you have better educated yourself.
So, you are acting like a typical Republican and denying facts? What a pitiful world of Republican ignorance you live in.
It is sad how stupid Republicans are.
Facts are real pal whether or not in your little world you want to believe them.
Bruce Bartlett worked in the Reagan White house from 1987 to 1989 and then worked for GHW Bush….
Doubling down on ignorance doesn’t change the facts.
“Bruce Bartlett held senior policy roles in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations and served on the staffs of Representatives Jack Kemp and Ron Paul. He is the author of “The Benefit and the Burden: Tax Reform — Why We Need It and What It Will Take.”
No where do they mention Roger Jensen. I wonder why that is?
Probably because he is better known for having worked for Ronald Reagan and GHW Bush.
Sad little ignorant Republican.You are an embarrassment.
Since You accuse me of ignoring facts try this you sad little troll
“In 1976, Bartlett changed careers, going to work for U.S. Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas). Bartlett spent much of his time working with the House Banking Committee, of which Paul was a member. This involved Bartlett in economic issues. Paul was defeated when he ran for re-election in November 1976.
“In January 1977, Bartlett went to work for U.S. Congressman Jack Kemp (R-New York) as a staff economist. Bartlett spent much of his time on tax issues, helping to draft theKemp-Roth tax bill, which ultimately formed the basis of Ronald Reagan’s 1981 tax cut. Bartlett’s book, “Reaganomics: Supply-Side Economics in Action” appeared in 1981 (New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House Publishers). He also co-edited the book The Supply-Side Solution (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, 1983).
“In 1978, Bartlett went to work for Perry Duryea, who was the Republican candidate for governor of New York. Duryea was defeated in November and Bartlett returned to Washington, where he joined the staff of newly elected Senator Roger Jepsen (R-Iowa).
“In 1981, Jepsen became Vice chairman of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress and Bartlett became deputy director of the committee’s staff. Jepsen became chairman in 1983 and Bartlett became executive director of the JEC. During this period, the committee was very active in promoting Ronald Reagan’s economic policies…In 1987, Bartlett became a senior policy analyst in the White House Office of Policy Development, then headed by Gary Bauer. He left in 1988 to become the deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department, where he served until the end of the George H. W. Bush administration.”
None of the positions he held were ones that would give him access to the president. The closest he got was when he was deputy assistant secretary of blah blah blah and that meant he might get to be in the same room as the president but only if he was needed to sit down, shut up, and hand papers to his boss. He NEVER advised the president, any president, because on his best day he would only be allowed in the same room as the president if he pinkey promised he would not speak. You liberals want him to be a close confidant to Reagan and Bush because it makes you feel smug and at the end of the day you need a Fauxservative to take your side to validate you. But keep telling me how I am stupid you ignorant little troll. Keep repeating the talking points your mom leaves on you bed when she changes your sheets and then calling all your buddies to tell them how badly you stuck it to a Republican. Because guess what, nobody else cares.
Reagan also proposed Universal Health Care, which goes a lot farther than the ACA in providing medical care to poor people.
I saw that bit in my post but because I know how the White House works and what that office does I could easily dismiss it. The White House Office of Policy Development determines the best way to implement policy AFTER the president decides what it is. They do not advise the president on policy making. Senior policy analysts look at policy and write memos about how to make the ALREADY decided on policy work in the real world. That is not “reasoning that [I] can use to dismiss this piece of factual information” that is just factual information. You and other liberals can slant it anyway that you want but there is no FACTUAL evidence that Bartlett was EVER in a position to advise the president, let alone to be one of his senior advisers as so many liberal websites claim. My biggest mistake was believing that a liberal who did not know the function of an office would actually research what it does. It’s much easier to ignore facts and accept the confirmation bias that they are getting from the people promoting this self-aggrandizing fauxservative.