John J. Pitney, Jr.: Airbrushing Reagan
The memory of Ronald Reagan looms large in the current presidential race. At the recent Conservative Political Action Conference, Senator McCain invoked him several times. Reagan was an even greater presence at the last Republican presidential debate before Super Tuesday – and not just because it took place at the Reagan Library. According a New York Times analysis of the debate transcript, there were 53 references to his name.
The GOP candidates were invoking Reagan to shore up their conservative credentials. But they were talking about the mythical Reagan, not the historical one. His approach to government was more complex than they would admit.
True, he said in his 1981 Inaugural Address: “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” His admirers quote that line to demonstrate his passion for cutting wasteful spending and excessive government power.
Most quotations of the line lop off the first four words, distorting its meaning. By “this present crisis,” he meant the unusual mix of high unemployment and inflation that was plaguing the nation in 1981. Reagan was not speaking of government in general but of specific policies that were worsening these problems.
And those who quote “government is the problem” usually omit what he said moments later: “Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it is not my intention to do away with government. It is, rather, to make it work — work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it.”
Reagan’s deeds were as balanced as his words. In his first year as governor of California, he learned that state finances were worsening badly. To balance the budget, he agreed to the largest tax increase in the state’s history. In his first year as president, he did persuade Congress to cut income tax rates. During the following year, however, concern about deficits prompted him to sign the largest peacetime tax increase in American history up to that time. In reacting to the measure, a junior House member spoke for many conservatives:
The fact is, on this particular bill, the President is trying to score a touchdown for liberalism, for the liberal welfare state, for big government, for the Internal Revenue Service, for multinational corporations, and for the various forces that consistently voted against this President.
The speaker’s name was Newt Gingrich.
Reagan followed suit several more times. In inflation-adjusted dollars, federal revenues grew 21 percent between 1981 and 1989. Spending grew 23 percent, so the deficit got bigger.
The increase in spending may surprise those who remember Reagan as the scourge of big government. At the start of his administration, some of his supporters talked about scrapping some Cabinet departments. By the end, all the departments were still standing, along with a new one: the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Conservatives rightly remember Reagan for winning the Cold War. But they forget that the endgame entailed friction between Reagan and his political base. In an interview with television broadcasters, he complained about conservative opposition to an arms pact. “Now, I think that some of the people who are objecting the most and just refusing even to accede to the idea of ever getting any understanding, whether they realize it or not, those people, basically, down in their deepest thoughts, have accepted that war is inevitable and that there must come to be a war between the two superpowers.”
Conservative senators reacted angrily. Malcolm Wallop of Wyoming said: “Almost as offensive as his calling us warmongers was his apology for the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.” (Reagan had said that Mikhail Gorbachev had merely “inherited” the occupation.) Dan Quayle of Indiana added: “I’ll have to be honest that I was particularly appalled by the rhetoric last night, by the president of the United States, directed to those who would raise concerns about this treaty.”
One could many other differences between gauzy memory and hard history. In 1986, for instance, Reagan issued a statement endorsing “amnesty to certain qualified aliens.” He later signed an immigration reform bill including such a provision.
Ronald Reagan did much to advance the conservative cause. Nevertheless, conservatives do him no honor by airbrushing his many compromises.