I enjoy reading Mr. McKay”s letters. I don”t know him, but I think that is my loss. He seems to have some qualities that escape too many people. He has a brain he uses, he thinks, he has opinions and convictions, and is willing to publish them in an effort to make this a better country. We need many more like him. I tend to seldom agree with him, but that is our privilege and a sign of our country”s success.
Recently he wrote a letter titled “The system doesn”t work.” I have to agree with him, but from a far different perspective. He uses a comparison between the Reagan years and those of the present President, but ignores the changes that the past 20-some-odd years have seen. Mr. Reagan did pretty well, I supported him and campaigned for him in both in California and the United States but I suspect he would be having the same problems getting anything done as is Mr. Obama if he were to be President in the same conditions. Mr. Carter left a manageable mess, but also left the Cold War, and the attitude of the people toward the Soviets and he had the advantage of a banking system that had to live with the restrictions of the Glass-Steagle act. Reagan probably properly, chose to use government spending to create a massive buildup that eventually forced the Soviets into effective failure and it was this that raised GNP and lowered unemployment. It was also these years that degrading of the United States infrastructure. Let”s face it though, while production of war materials does improve GNP and lowered unemployment sounds good, the life of the average American isn”t really improved to the same extent. And let”s remember that it was massive government spending that really gave Mr. Reagan his record. Mr. Reagan also felt far different about taxes than today”s Republicans. He did try the top down Laffer curve approach, but when it failed, he saw to it that tax rates were restored (to an even higher rate than at his inauguration) and these rates remained in effect until Mr. Clinton lowered them, a fact seldom recognized. Mr. Reagan understood the importance of revenue and recognized the fallacy of staying the course. If he were faced with the same Congress problems Mr. Obama has, he would probably produce the same miniscule results.
When we compare such things as deficits, while Reagan had only one deficit year, Clinton had none and even managed one year of surplus. George W. Bush managed eight successive deficits plus tremendous debt from his unfunded wars. Not surprising that polls indicate that “the people” look back on the Clinton years very favorably. In terms of end-of-administration unemployment, Reagan left 7 ? percent, Clinton 4 ? percent , and Bush Two 15-plus percent. Mr. Reagan had some housing problems until the mortgage rates were managed, Clinton had a housing boom, Bush Two left a housing financial and banking chaos still hurting the country.
In summary, I think there is ample evidence that Mr. Obama is correct in saying what he did and that McKay is misled when he thinks Republican policy has been so successful.
Guthrie “Guff” Worth
Lakeport
