In 1964, Ronald Reagan gave a speech entitled, “A Time for Choosing.” Meant as an endorsement for presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, who would lose, it actually made the former movie actor famous once more and eventually earn him the presidency.
The following video contextualizes Reagan’s speech by interjecting clips from Obama’s term, and suggests that history repeats itself, while promoting the fundamental basis for Libertarianism. Reagan had made a number of observations at the time that would prove correct today, applicable not just to Obama.
“I have an uncomfortable feeling that this prosperity isn’t something on which we can base our hopes for the future,” said Reagan, whose words were then contrasted with Obama’s: “the key point that I am making right now is that, the economy is moving in a positive direction.” In this speech that catapulted him to the presidency, Reagan is seen pointing out the flimsy state of the economy and he goes on to highlight that the debt burden of the US was growing at an astonishing rate (at the time). Obama on the other hand is seen ‘cheerleading’ the economic recovery, before it has even been achieved by middle America. A true politician, Obama was keen as ever to spin any story to his advantage. Obama too had promised to deal with the debt level prior to his presidency and has a tawdry track record of doing so after he had gained the presidency.
The fact that America has somehow survived with this enormous debt burden since Reagan could be used to explain away the repercussions of the enormous amounts that must be stolen from the real economy to pay the ever growing interest (this is even considering the near-zero interest rates that are being charged). Where it was not stolen from the people (who are forced to work ever harder for a lesser inflation-adjusted paycheck) it must be stolen from foreign lenders, who are forced to use the dollar anyway as a reserve. Unlike at the time of Reagan, American dominance is waning and far from certain.
While Reagan was seen stating that America owned no gold, the Federal Reserve on the other hand was seen trying to prevent an amendment that would promote transparency at the Federal Reserve. The allegation is clear: that, as in Reagan’s time, there was little gold kept in America’s name and that America had spent much of its wealth away. Unlike the US dollar, which is held as a reserve and seen as valuable only as long as other countries trust America, gold is viewed by all countries as a reliable means of accumulating wealth; during WW2, when Germany was suffering from hyperinflation, gold was accepted by neutral countries as a form of payment.
In the next few scenes, the problem of inflation is juxtaposed with the amount of money being pumped into the economy in order to stimulate it. Beyond the simple conclusion of the video, it should be noted that unlike conventional stimulus, which is bad enough, the kind of stimulus being deployed has resulted in a direct wealth transfer from the middle class to the rich.
This so-called trickle-down economics can even be viewed as one of the tenants of Reaganomics, but with a twist that might draw the ire of even the staunchest proponents of it: Reaganomics focuses on not taxing the rich, and not spending much on the poor, the current era’s policies focuses on spending on the rich via bailouts and increasing the ‘wealth effect’ via increasing share and home prices.
The video is an interesting resource for fans and critics of Reagan alike. Hopefully it inspires a new generation of people to stop idolizing any one man and think for themselves.
Kind of sad Reagan didn’t follow his speech either. One can blame which ever president is in office but the truth is congress holds the purse strings. Because big money is so entrenched in being able to even run for congress big money gets it’s way. This last budget the Navy asked for a number of New jet fighters F35 108 billion a pop and still is not fix yet. Congress decides to purchase more, Would it be because Lockheed Martin is one of the top 10 contributors. Our congress(add Pres. if you wish) is like a teen who doesn’t know the value of money, with their dads credit card. Public has to ask itself when is it time to pull the credit card from the government who cant stop spending. Like ones teen would say when you finally take the card away, congress will say the same thing, “You didn’t say I couldn’t buy it all, I thought I was doing what you wanted”
True story. Me. You can’t trust the whole lot of them. Reagan was an idiot and a crook.
Are you kidding? I couldnt even read the entire thing. Every president has made promises during a campaign that they couldnt deliver. Because if im right, every thing has to be voted on. As we can see by current events, the Republicans are doing their best to sabotage Obama at every turn. You cant put all of this on any 1 president.
Wow, what garbage! No wonder it is anonymous, who would want to take credit for that? Too bad Reagan didn’t have a Democrat to follow his presidency and take the blame when his smoke and mirrors fell apart.It ended up being Bush senior who took the hit. Clinton had to step in to clean up the mess and left Bush junior with and surplus that he squandered and let his cronies run the economy into the ground, by de regulating every thing. What a joke, you can’t rewrite history Republicans!
with these kind of people http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/10/senate-democrats-republican-letter-iran in the US Congress “helping” Obama what expectations do you have?
Ronald Reagan was a complete fraud. He was an actor who played his part excellently. He raised the debt. He raised taxes. Republicans love to claim they want to take the burden off the people but what they do is to ensure the corporations make their money, usually via war and preparations for war. Stop paying any attention to what the politicians say. Pay attention only to what they actually do. Obama and Reagan are both front men who heed only the word of the corporatists, the oligarchs.
Talk about smoke and mirrors? Clinton gave the illusion of a balance budget through the process of devolution; he placed enormous financial burdens on the individual states.