[Note]: If Democrats & progressives practiced hegemonic warfare, the way Republicans & conservatives do, you would be able to recite the contents of the following diary in your sleep. Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, heck, even Chris "The Osmosis Kid" Matthews would have shown you snazzier versions of the charts below a gazillion times alredy.
For conservatives, Ronald Reagan is a god. As well he must be, since gods are not to be questioned, and conservatives are not the questioning kind. Nor is Reagan the sort who stands up to scrutiny well, as I and countless others have pointed out on occasions numberless to man (though perhaps not to women who Google). For one thing, I can just never get over the fact that it's virtually certain he got into office by an act of treason--much like Richard Nixon did--and that Lee Hamilton, the Indiana prototype for Evan Bayh, let him get away with it. But if the political machinations of getting into office are obscure and controversial, the economic record is etched in stone in indisputable, widely available (it's on the internet!) public data. And this week, I just happened to stumble across a website comparing Reagan's record to that of the Clinton-who is, for modern conservatives, an antichrist-like counterpart to Reagan's godhood.
The website was created by a fellow named Patrick Ziegler way back in 2002. The best view for getting the point across is the "Charts and Commentary" view. The charts aren't the best quality in the world (Hey! It was 2002!), but the information they convey is devastating, and the commentary, though brief, makes sure you get the message.
For example, the first graph shows government receipts in billions of dollars:
By Zach Carter, Media Consortium MediaWire Blogger
President Barack Obama rolled out his highly anticipated federal budget proposal on Thursday, and while the plan represents a dramatic departure from the priorities of the Bush administration, its ultimate impact may be crippled by a counterproductive bank bailout.
