Figures Can’t Lie, but Liars Can Figure

By Jeff “Mario” Smith, Guerilla Reporter

March 1^st in the year of our Lord 2010

Elaborating on the period from 1933 – 1937, with regard to Nazi Party control of the press, radio, and films, William L. Shirer, author of “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”, wrote “…a steady diet over the years of falsifications and distortions made a certain impression on one’s mind and often misled it. No one who has not lived for years in a totalitarian land can possibly conceive how difficult it is to escape the dreaded consequences of a regime’s calculated and incessant propaganda.”

Any observant person can see that liberals control most of the press, radio, and films in America today and what may have once been news is now propaganda. Although much of their control has been checked by the rise of talk radio and the freedom of the Internet, they still remain a powerful factor in the formation of what we call “public opinion”. Sadly, many people, either through laziness, naivety, or pride and ego, still allow the mainstream media to influence them. If the last three presidential elections don’t illustrate the sad state of affairs regarding the lack of real knowledge of history and current events in the minds of most Americans, nothing does.

Shirer also wrote, “…sometimes in a casual conversation…, I would meet with the most outlandish assertions from seemingly educated and intelligent persons. It was obvious that they were parroting some piece of nonsense they had heard on the radio or read in the newspapers. Sometimes one was tempted to say as much, but on such occasions one was met with such a state of incredulity, such a shock of silence, as if one had blasphemed the Almighty, that one realized how useless it was even to try to make contact with a mind which had become warped and for whom the facts of life had become what Hitler and Goebbels, with their cynical disregard for the truth, said they were.”

This sounds eerily similar to the state of affairs in America today but there isn’t a Hitler and Goebbels. We do have an Obama and a Rahm Emanuel, but more important is what brought us to this. There is an upside down “education” establishment that has turned from teaching knowledge to indoctrination, an entertainment industry obsessed with the destruction of morality and the promotion of revisionist history, and a press that is so liberal and entertainment oriented many people can no longer stomach reading or watching them.

One of the biggest lies of liberals is that the Reagan Legacy is one of greed. We have all heard the stories about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer during the eighties. Nothing could be further from the truth. While liberal information controllers in the press, the textbook industry, and the entertainment industry have invested much effort in convincing the American people of their distorted view of the Reagan Legacy, figures can’t lie.

Ronald Wilson Reagan strongly believed in this nation and its people. He understood the value of free market capitalism, individual freedom and liberty, godly family values, and was optimistic about America’s future. He came along at a time when America was in the throes of economic decline, the U.S.S.R. was successfully challenging our strength, islamic extremists in Iran held America hostage, and pessimism was the general attitude in America. Our military was going through a post-Vietnam War malaise and lacked funding for even the most basic items.

Ronald Reagan changed America bringing us real hope in our future and in what we could be if government would get out of our way. He presided over the longest peacetime economic boom in our nation’s history and, understanding evil as he did, proved that there is only peace when there is strength. Ronald Reagan changed America and by doing so, he helped to change the world.

Were the eighties really a decade of greed?

Did the rich get richer and did the poor get poorer? Is the history being properly told? The answer to these questions is a resounding no. A liberally biased and morally defunct media have shaped the legacy of the Reagan years, in effect revising history. As interpreters, they have distorted the legacy.

Figures can’t lie. The eighties were the greatest period of economic growth in any economy in the history of the world. Look it up but don’t expect google, snopes, or some opinion oriented website to provide real data. Go to the government archives and see for yourself.

Bill “that depends on what the meaning of the word is is” Klinton referred to the Reagan years as “the worst economic period in fifty years” and, of course, his allies in the liberal media did not call him on this very large lie. He said, the “corrupt do-nothing values of the 1980’s must never mislead us again”. This is clearly not true when you look at the facts of America’s economic history. For demonrats, discrediting the Reagan Legacy is much easier than living with his successes because Reagan proved them wrong on every thing they believe in. This is why they so virulently oppose the Reagan years.

Supply side economics (Reaganomics) gave us the strongest economic expansion ever, which also allowed Ronald Wilson Reagan to tell Mr. Gorbachev “Tear down this wall”. Reagan was elected to turn America around from the Jimmy Carter legacy of defeat, economic decline, joblessness, and outright pessimism.

The Carter Years gave us the following:

• Inflation 13 – 14%
• Interest rates 18 – 19%
• Budget deficit at an all time high
• Islamic militants in Iran holding US hostages
• The American Flag burned all over the world
• Pessimism ruled in the country
• There was a real fear of our children never getting jobs
• Retirements were in destruction
• Soaring unemployment
• Military strength was dangerously weak

Then along came Ronald Reagan, who was compelling and enthusiastic for the American spirit. He said, “Let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength, and let us renew our faith and our hope. We have every right to dream heroic dreams.”

Ronald Wilson Reagan led as a leader should lead. He took an economy in a virtual state of collapse and by cutting taxes for everyone, and burdensome government regulations, incentives were created and the American Spirit responded. Free market capitalism succeeded and by early 1983, we were in the largest economic expansion in post WWII history.

As Reagan knew, Freedom Works! The people, when allowed to flourish with government getting off their backs, took the ball and ran with it. Contrary to the rhetoric coming form the mouth of the current resident of the White House and his leftist companions, capitalism indeed works.

There were only two great fiscal policy accomplishments since WWII. One was due to JFK’s tax cuts in 1962 and the other was Reagan’s tax cuts in 1981. These were real tax cuts, not rhetoric, not cuts for “green industries” and other assorted politically correct segments of the economy, but cuts across the board for everyone. Reagan didn’t choose who would win and who would lose; he allowed the American people to make that choice through freedom.

Some Figures That Can’t Lie:

• Our Gross National Product in 1990 was 31% higher than it was in 1982, this in real inflation adjusted terms. From 1973 to 1982 U.S. GNP growth was only 1.6% per year. From 1983 to 1989 it was 3.8% per year, almost 3 times the growth.
• The Misery Index was at a peak at the end of the Carter Administration. It declined drastically throughout Reagan’s two terms.
• Inflation averaged 10.7% during the Carter years and 4% during the Reagan years.
• Unemployment grew by 19.5% from 1982 – 1990. Between 1-1982 and 12-1989, 19.9 Million jobs were created. Over 13.2 Million of these jobs were higher paying professional, managerial, and technical jobs in the private sector.
• Unemployment among blacks dropped from 20.4% to 11.4%.
• Unemployment among Hispanics went from 15.3% – 8%.
• Stagnant for a decade, non-farm productivity grew by 10.6%.
• Manufacturing production tripled, growing in real terms by 48% from 1982 to 1990.
• US Exports grew by 92.6% from 1982 to 1990.
• The standard of living of the American people grew by nearly a fifth. WE were number one, 40% above Japan and Europe. By 1988, our economy was 70% larger than Japan’s.
• The Net Worth of families earning between 20K and 50k rose by 28%. This means assets grew faster than debt for the middle class in America, and therefore this growth was not built on a mountain of debt.
• Mean average of real income rose by 15.2% from 1980 to 1989. Five times as many people saw their incomes go up as those who saw their incomes decline.

As can be seen by the growth of the net worth of American families, this astounding expansion that Ronald Wilson Reagan presided over was not on borrowed money. US public debt was below the average of all G7 nations. Corporate debt as a share of GDP was the lowest of all the G7 nations.

The Number One Figure the Left Uses to Distort the Reagan Legacy:

When discussing “Reaganomics” the left will look at the average family income in the year 1979 (near the end of the Carter Malaise) and compare it with the year 1989 (one year after Reagan left office). They will show a line we might like to call “the democrat line” which runs downward on a graph. Here is the clincher that should make everyone mad. What the left does is to conveniently forget that the year 1980, Carter’s last year in office, brought a huge decline in the average family income, a whopping 160% decrease. So, if the graph were to start in 1980 rather than in 1979, it would show a very sharp increase. This is how liars and deceivers distort numbers and use charts to confuse us and they use the mainstream media to burn it into the heads of Americans constantly. As Shirer described above when discussing the tactics of the Nazis, they have “a cynical disregard for the truth.”

Did the poor lose during the 80’s as Academia and the mainstream media tell us?

The left always like to portray Republicans as helping the rich at the expense of the poor, but the greatest of all Republican legacies, the Reagan years, shows this to be false.

From 1980 – 1990, black households made bigger increases than white households, 31% compared to 19%.

85% of taxpayers in the lowest fifth in income, and 60% of taxpayers in the next to the lowest fifth in income in 1979 had moved into a higher bracket by 1988. 65% of these people moved up at least two income brackets. This is huge!

The poverty rate for blacks in 1982 was 35.6% but by 1989 was down to 30.7%. Among Hispanics it dropped from 29.9% to 26.2%.

Real incomes of those in the bottom earnings bracket rose 77% from 1977 to 1986, more than those in the top bracket.

All income groups had their taxes cut in the 80’s thanks to Reagan’s policies and while the rich got a little richer, the poor got a lot richer.

The top fifth income earners, whom the left like to portray as “the rich”, saw only a 9% tax cut. The middle three fifths saw a 20% tax cut. The bottom fifth saw a 275% tax cut as many were totally relieved from paying taxes. Indeed millions of families were completely removed from the tax roles.

The only income bracket that saw more families move down than up during the 1980s was in the top fifth, where 53% moved to a lower category.

After the Kemp-Roth tax cuts of 1981, those earning over $1,000,000.00 per year paid 41% more taxes, and those making less than $25,000.00 per year paid 12% less taxes. This appears to suggest the exact opposite of what the left keeps telling us. Huh? So much for that theory of those mean old Republicans.

What about charity? Don’t we need the government to take care of the poor?

Charitable giving grew by 5.1% per year during the 80’s, 55% higher growth than in the previous 25 years. Again, this is huge. Between 1982 and 1989 corporate contributions grew 10% per year. After adjusting for inflation charitable contributions grew by 56% or $121 Billion per year.

Free voluntary contributions to charity almost tripled in the 80’s under Reagan. Good people who care about others, are unselfish, and when allowed to flourish, do exactly that, and they are quick to share their wealth, voluntarily. We know how to handle Liberty and will always use the free market system for the good it was intended to be used for, contrary to what liberals say.

What about government revenue after the tax cuts, didn’t it fall?

Total tax revenue between 1981 and 1991, after adjusting for inflation, rose by 23.2% from $599.3 Billion in 1981 to $1.091 Trillion in 1991, after the Reagan tax cuts took effect. So, tax cuts, when enacted across the board to all segments of society, at all income levels, and all businesses as well, increase the revenue government receives. Why? Because when unshackled by burdensome taxation and regulations the American people prove the validity of the free market capitalist system and they flourish.

Gross private investment increased 32% from 1982 – 1990.

What a bright moment for Americans Reagan created through free market and limited government policies. He moved us away from the welfare state to feeling proud again to be an American involved in the greatest economic system ever created in the history of the world.

“That government is best that governs least.” –John Stuart Mill

During the Reagan years, the government was given back to the people. Our great strength is not our government; it is our individuals willing to accept responsibility for their own lives and for their own communities. When freed from the shackles of the oppression of high taxes and regulations and bureaucracy ad infinitum, the American people prove that Liberty works, every time.

Regarding the rhetoric from the mainstream media and academia regarding to the Reagan years, Charles Wolf said, “The rhetoric of decline is wrong because it portrays a past that wasn’t, a present that isn’t, and a future that probably won’t be.”

So why the major revisions?

Let’s call it mind control. In order to gain political power, the left incites doom and gloom and portrays their big government as the savior. They have to convince the voting public that the free market doesn’t work and that government needs to be bigger and more powerful to save us from our own greed. When the other guys hold power and prove liberals wrong again, they just lie and distort because they know they control most of the flow of information and will not be held accountable. In the process, they build up the government sector while chipping away at the private sector, thus contributing to the destruction of Liberty in general.

The same old lies are told over and over again and again, and they never stop using them. What is amazing is that the American people have swallowed these lies, from two American institutions already proved to be liars and deceivers, the mainstream media and academia, and have elected a known marxist to be President. Factoring in the democrat party control of Congress, Americans have enabled one-party control of our government bringing us closer and closer to pure tyranny.

God always says it best. “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” –Proverbs 29:2 (KJB)