Exploding The Reagan Myth by Milt Shook

Snip>Ronald Reagan did NOT cut taxes for most people -- Like George W. Bush, Reagan reduced taxes only on the very rich. Unlike George W. Bush, he actually raised them on the rest of us, when all was said and done. When Reagan took office, the top tax rate was 50%. When he left office, the top tax rate was 28%. That’s a 44% decrease in the tax rate, just for making a lot of money. Even during the initial round of tax cuts, no one else got a tax cut even close to that.

Snip>Supply-side economics did NOT increase tax revenues under Ronald Reagan – Reagan cut taxes for the rich drastically early on, based on the concept of “supply-side economics.” Basically, under this theory, the less tax everyone pays, the more they produce with the money they save, because they will create jobs and more income opportunities for everyone else.

Snip>The economy did NOT boom under Ronald Reagan – This one should be a no-brainer, but the phrase “second-longest peacetime economic expansion in history” has been repeated so much that I’m not surprised that so many bought into this ridiculous notion.
The fact of the matter is, there was no economic boom under Reagan. The average unemployment rate in 1980 was 7.2%. UNemployment went as high as 11% in 1982 and the average unemployment rates for 1982 and 1983 were 9.7% and 9.6%, respectively. In fact, the unemployment rate when he was reelected in a landslide in 1984 was 7.4% (so much for those "journalists" who claim "no president has ever won reelection with unemployment over 7%&quot , and it didn’t even go below 7% until AFTER (are you sitting down, right wingers?) he raised taxes for most people. The lowest unemployment rate of his presidency was 5.2% in January 1989, as he was leaving office. Not bad, but not exactly something to write home to mother about. The Republicans at the time even tried to suggest that 5% constituted "full employment," which flies in the face of every economic theory out there.

Much more at: http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/2012/07/letstelltruthaboutreagan.html