Religião é Veneno

September 03, 2010 05:30 PM
Cenk: The Political Line Has Moved so Far Right Reagan Couldn't Run as a Republican



Cenk Uygur filling in for Dylan Ratigan again this week more or less rehashed his op-ed from The Huffington Post, Who is More Conservative: Ronald Reagan or Barack Obama? As he noted in his column, Ronald Reagan:

-Gave Amnesty to Illegal Immigrants
-Negotiated with Terrorists (Traded Arms for Hostages with Iran)
-Raised Taxes
-Negotiated with the "Evil Empire" without Pre-conditions
-Made a Decision to "Cut and Run" From Lebanon After Our Troops Were Attacked

Cenk wrapped up his post this way.

The bottom line is that, no matter what the reason, Obama seems to be in some important ways significantly to the right of Reagan on the political spectrum. If Reagan ordered the execution of US citizens abroad, he might have been impeached. If Obama tried to give undocumented immigrants blanket amnesty the way Reagan did, he might be impeached.

I don't think Obama is a hard right-winger. It's just that the political establishment in this country has moved so far to the right (though not the public, according to polls on specific issues) that as a natural politician when he goes to appease them, he is solidly center-right on the spectrum.

And the political line has moved so far that if Reagan tried to run as a Republican now he would be the laughing stock of the party. Rush Limbaugh would tear him to shreds and Bill Kristol would say he is Neville Chamberlain. He would be run out of town as a tax-raising, amnesty giving, terrorist negotiating, cut and run no-good lib who hates the troops.

And anyone who claims otherwise is being absurd. As Reagan once said, "Facts are stubborn things."

He's right, things have shifted so far to the right that Ronald Reagan would be run out of town with today's Republican Party, not that it will stop them from practically raising his dead corpse as their great conservative icon while campaigning. Steve Benen has more here on the right's changing perceptions of Reagan as well.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/hea ... -far-right

Government Employment since 1976


Menzie Chinn at Econbrowser posted a graph of total government employment over the last decade: The "Ever-Expanding" Government Sector, Illustrated

In response to the comments to his post, here are a couple of additional graphs:

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows federal, state, and local government employment as a percent of the civilian noninstitutional population since 1976 (all data from the BLS).

Federal government employment has decreased over the last 35 years (mostly in the 1990s), state government employment has been flat, and local government employment has increased.

Note the small spikes very 10 years. That is the impact of the decennial census.

The second graph shows government employment excluding education as a percent of the civilian noninstitutional.

The percent of federal and state government employment (ex-education) have all declined. Local government employment has been steady - so overall government employment (ex-education) as a percent of the civilian population is down over the last 35 years.





http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... -1976.html