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To paraphrase Reagan, "there you go again." Reagan did NOT cut taxes across the board. He cut tax rates, but he increased total personal tax collections, substantially. He restructured the tax codes so that the money came from different pockets, but he did take more of our collective money. We have been through this before. Tax rates and total tax collections are completely different things. You may choose to bask in the glow of Reagan's presidency, but facts are facts.

"There are 124.5 million Americans in their prime working years (ages 25�54). Nearly one-quarter of this group�28.9 million people, or 23.2 percent of the total�is not currently employed. They either became so discouraged that they left the labor force entirely, or they are in the labor force but unemployed. This group of non-employed individuals is more than 3.5 million larger than before the recession began in 2007,

This is the crux of what is displayed in Dave's above charts. Obama has extended the welfare teat and we have a whole new generation suckling on it. I'm not going to dig the numbers up again but it's better financially for most of the underachievers to collect welfare then take a minimal wage job. There is no more shame in doing this today then there is in having multiple children out of wedlock,
I'm afraid that unless there's a real return to the moral and Christian values most of us were raised under that the United States we have known is doomed. I also firmly believe it will take some kind of major event serving as a catylist for this to happen.
Jim

I believe we have. What's the point here, you're not saying the same people who had an income tax rate cut made up the difference by paying more for other taxes. If you like the term collective, hasn't history shown that any time the individual income tax rate goes down, revenue goes up because there's more 'collective' working.

Doesn't history show it worked for dems too. Don't have to just bask in Reagan's greatness, it works for small people also.

The point here is that Dave K continues to state that Reagan reduced taxes, and that is simply not true. Reagan increased taxes.

The point Replacement is that argument of yours,once again is what liberals have been hanging on to and losing EVERY DAMN TIME !Just because you live in libtard land does excuse your inability to deal with REAL facts.

Once more so you can try and understand it although I doubt it will get through !

Ronald Reagan may have presided over the most significant tax reform effort in our nation�s history, yet historical revisionists are attempting to besmirch that legacy � while using him as a straw man against modern Republicans.

Saying Ronald Reagan raised taxes is like saying Michael Jordan was a guy who struck out a lot � or that he was a failed baseball player: It�s factually correct, but misleading, nonetheless.

Over the course of his two terms in office, Reagan presided over several changes to the tax code. What is important to remember � what is vital to understand � is that not all taxes are created equal.


Again, it�s important to put things in context. When inaugurated, Reagan inherited a nation with 16 tax brackets � ranging from marginal rates of 14 percent to 70 percent. By 1989, that was down to two brackets � with marginal rates of 15 percent and 28 percent. (Those rates � and brackets � were short lived. By the time Clinton left office, the top marginal rate was back up to 39.6 percent. But you can�t blame Reagan for tax increases that came after his tenure. That�d be like President Obama blaming George W. Bush for tax cuts passed in 2011�)
When Democrats or media embrace Reagan for �raising taxes X number of times,� they are usually engaging in willful obfuscation. This is because they know that when most people hear the words, �tax hike,� they naturally assume you mean raising income taxes. But tax rates (both nominal and effective) dropped dramatically across-the-board during Reagan�s tenure.

Not only did the top individual income tax rate go from 70 to 28 percent! � but the tax code was also indexed for inflation (this is a big deal, because inflation had heretofore pushed people into higher tax brackets � a double whammy.)

No doubt that he reduced tax rates. But that's not what you initially stated, either in this thread or in the one from a few months ago. You stated that he reduced taxes across the board, and that is not the case. Reagan increased tax collections while reducing tax rates, by restructuring the tax code. A good bit of sleight of hand and it seems to have fooled a lot of people who weren't paying close attention, either at that time, or now. Regardless of your political philosophy, it was an accounting trick that had positive economic repercussions. Regardless, it's still incorrect to claim that he reduced taxes.

Reagan cut tax rates. Because of that, people had the incentive to make more money, because they could keep more of what they earned. High taxes disincentivize increased effort. More economic activity meant more jobs, i.e. more taxpayers. This resulted in more total tax revenue coming in, or, higher total taxes paid in the aggregate. Why is this so tough to understand? There was no "trick". More economic freedom and opportunity results in more economic activity. Less, and you get what we have now.

Exactly. He cut tax rates, but increased taxes through code restructuring. There is a fundamental difference between accounting and economics. I'm guessing you did not do well in economics.

Technically, if you look at it on an individual basis, he certainly did cut taxes. A person making X amount of income one year, then making the same amount the year after the rate reduction took effect, that individual certainly received a tax cut. I'm not sure what point you're making, as lower taxes results in more economic activity. Reagan did not "increase taxes", his rate decreases (tax cuts) resulted in increased collections, which does not qualify as a tax increase.

Holy crap, you are either dumb as a bag of rocks or your ideology makes you incapable of acknowledging simple mathematical facts.



Technically, he did not cut taxes. Technically, he did cut tax rates. Technically, some people paid less in taxes. Technically, some people paid more in taxes. Technically, Reagan increased the aggregated total tax take from all of us. If your total tax bill was reduced, good for you. My total tax bill increased as a result of Reagan's tax code restructuring. Most of the people I work with found their tax bills increasing. At the time of his tax code rejiggering (and until I retired a couple of years ago), I was forced to restructure hundreds of millions of dollars of employee compensation plans to minimize the taxes that those employees would have to pay as a direct result of Reagan's tax changes. Get your head out of your ass and study the subject rather that just parroting the Reagan acolytes' tired lines. He did some good things and he was reputedly a very nice guy, but he did not reduce taxes.