Odd Couple

I'm talking about Ronald Reagan and Alan Greenspan. I know many of you remember well what was called Voodoo Economics by George Bush. For the sake of being Vice President he ate his words. To bad really,at that juncture in time he told the truth and Reagan's economic policy was bad for the country. While Ronnie was running for President he kept on saying the Democratic policy's have up to that point been Tax and Spend, A term still used quite often today.
And so Reaganomics was born. Borrow and spend. Reagan and Greenspan conspired to rewrite how things were done and are still being done today. Supply side economics was the new catch phrase. For the less schooled it was called trickle down Economics. Their argument was only the rich could supply jobs to the serf's. That would be us. You know it took 200 years for us to get in debt for the first Trillion dollars. Under Reagan it only took 5 years to double it.
As all of us know he cut taxes for the Rich. What some don't know is that he raided the Social Security Fund. In 1982 Reagan made Greenspan chairman Of the National commission on Social Security.
The following year Greenspan enacted a very large hike in payroll taxes in order to Generate surpluses to cover the next 30 years. This hike was NOT used to pay for Social Security but was used to pay for spending of the Administration. Since the Rich weren't paying for their share the working stiff had to pay. Worked well don't you think?
In 1987 Reagan nominated Greenspan to replace Paul Volker as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Over the years some caught on to this scam like Senator Danial Moynihan from New York.
Moyihan went after Bush at this point and wanted the Payroll tax reduced to what it was before they got their greedy hands on it. Not so Much.
The thing is their of course, been Presidents after Bush,Clinton,Bush,Bush,and now Obama.
Still to this day not a freaking dime goes into the fund that was set up to keep Social Security solvent. If the money was never taken out to start with,we would have had over 2.5 Trillion Dollars in it.
I'm telling you, Ronald Reagan was the worst thing to happen to this country. Voodoo economics persist 30 years after. Today he is looked at as if he were a God. I'm surprised they don't rename the country after him.
The United States of Reagan. As far as Greenspan, why the hell is this guy listened to at all. Obama wake the hell up! If you want advice ask Elizabeth Warren and not the clowns advising you now.

My Thanks to Dr.Allen W.Smith Professor of Economics Emeritus at Eastern Illinois University