Reason.com - Free Minds and Free Markets
Reason logo Reason logo
  • Latest
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Subscribe
    • Crossword
  • Video
  • Podcasts
    • All Shows
    • The Reason Roundtable
    • The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie
    • The Soho Forum Debates
    • Just Asking Questions
    • The Best of Reason Magazine
    • Why We Can't Have Nice Things
  • Volokh
  • Newsletters
  • Donate
    • Donate Online
    • Donate Crypto
    • Ways To Give To Reason Foundation
    • Torchbearer Society
    • Planned Giving
  • Subscribe
    • Reason Plus Subscription
    • Print Subscription
    • Gift Subscriptions
    • Subscriber Support

Login Form

Create new account
Forgot password

Is Bruce Bartlett an Impostor? Was Reagan?

Nick Gillespie | 4.11.2006 7:20 AM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests

At the Chronicle of Higher Education--well worth reading even if you izzn't a college gradjiate, much less a gradjiate student or perfesser--Alan Wolfe says Dubya "may be the most anti-intellectual president of modern times" in a commentary on Francis Fukuyama's latest and Bruce Bartlett's Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy. Wolfe also accuses Bartlett of a bit of ideological dissembling along the way:

More a libertarian than a conservative, [Bartlett] still believes that radical tax cuts, even if they do not starve the beast of government, can stimulate economic growth in the long run, thus shrinking deficits by raising revenue. That idea used to be called "supply-side economics." Originally developed by the economist Arthur B. Laffer, supply-side economics is as unproven as the starve-the-beast hypothesis. If one believes that government can play a positive role in providing health care or protecting the natural environment, moreover, Bartlett's faith in laissez-faire is also dangerous, threatening, as it does, the sense of fairness that makes democratic government legitimate. Still, even if Bartlett's own ideas are debatable, he does such a good job demonstrating the pernicious consequences of Mr. Bush's bad ideas that he forces readers to think about better ones.

Whole thing here. (Hat tip: Arts & Letters Daily)

We're excerpting Bartlett's book in the June ish of Reason (subscribe already!). Bruce's affiliation with our mag goes back to 1977, when he wrote about the politics of Pearl Harbor (not online, alas). His most recent byline is from 1995--wasn't that a time!--when he participated in this roundtable on tax reform with Cato's Ed Crane, Americans for Tax Reform's Grover Norquist, and tax consultant Dan Pilla. (Bruce has also been known to haunt Hit & Run's comments section.)

Here's one question I've always had for Bruce (and other defenders of the "Reagan Legacy"): How do all the tax increases that Reagan signed into law fit with the guy's "legacy" as a shrinker of government, etc.? Leaving aside social issues (including the drug war, which Reagan cranked up like some PCP punk from TV's Quincy) and the consolidation of power in Washington even as he marched under the banner of the "New Federalism" (which turned out to be a lot like the Old Federalism, only different).

Bruce does a solid job of documenting all the various tax increases Reagan put into action in Impostor, and he notes in this column that RWR put his name on "the largest peacetime tax increase in American history" and that he jacked Social Security taxes, an "increase that lives with us still, since it initiated automatic increases in the taxable wage base." Thanks, Dutch! When it comes to spending, arguably the only measure that matters, Reagan wasn't as bad as Dubya or LBJ, but he also wasn't as good as Clinton or Nixon, either, when it comes to increases in overall discretionary spending or total outlays. Does Reagan get a pass on this sort of stuff because of his rhetoric? Because he cut top marginal rates and simplified (relatively speaking) the tax code? Because he had the indigo blue hair of a comic-book hero?

Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

NEXT: How Do You Feel About Immigration?

Nick Gillespie is an editor at large at Reason and host of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie.

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests

Show Comments (19)

Latest

Review: A Comic Book Villain Runs for Mayor of New York in the New Daredevil Series

Joe Lancaster | From the July 2025 issue

Brickbat: Friends in High Places

Charles Oliver | 6.6.2025 4:00 AM

Is the Supreme Court Really That Divided? The Facts Say No.

Billy Binion | 6.5.2025 5:21 PM

Milton Friedman Disproved Trump's Argument for Tariffs Decades Ago

Joe Lancaster | 6.5.2025 4:35 PM

If Viewers Love PBS So Much, Let Them Pay for It

Robby Soave | 6.5.2025 3:20 PM

Recommended

  • About
  • Browse Topics
  • Events
  • Staff
  • Jobs
  • Donate
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Media
  • Shop
  • Amazon
Reason Facebook@reason on XReason InstagramReason TikTokReason YoutubeApple PodcastsReason on FlipboardReason RSS

© 2024 Reason Foundation | Accessibility | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

r

Do you care about free minds and free markets? Sign up to get the biggest stories from Reason in your inbox every afternoon.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

This modal will close in 10

Reason Plus

Special Offer!

  • Full digital edition access
  • No ads
  • Commenting privileges

Just $25 per year

Join Today!