Lie #6: Ronald Reagan was the greatest tax cutter of all time.
Through thick and thin, this hagiography of Ronald Reagan is central to Republican identity. But as Steve Benenrightly noted, it is President Obama whose stimulus plan delivered thelargest two-year tax cut in history. And as it turns out, what SaintRonnie giveth, he also taketh away.
As predicted, Reagan's massive $749 billion supply-side tax cuts in 1981 quickly produced even more massive annual budget deficits.Combined with his rapid increase in defense spending, Reagan deliverednot the balanced budgets he promised, but record-settings deficits.Even his OMB alchemist David Stockman could not obscure the disaster with his famous "rosy scenarios."