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A Reagan Conservative debunks the current GOP's economic proposals

Picture credit: mariopiperni.com

Given the iconic status of Ronald Reagan and "Reaganomics" that is serially invoked among the current crop of GOP candidates - particularly at the level of presidential aspirants - it's useful to listen to one guy who actually did help formulate Reagan's economic strategy three decades ago and who isn't impressed with the rubber-stamped "Reagan(!)" pretenders.

Bruce Bartlett - one of the few sane voices left in contemporary conservatism (or, perhaps more accurately, left in the wake of extremist right-wing radicalism that pays lip service to conservatism) - was a domestic policy advisor in the Reagan administration and adheres to conservative fiscal policy, which he doesn't interpret as simply "more tax cuts all of the time."

Here's Bartlett's explanation of why the current GOP agenda - tied to simplistic invocations of Ronald Reagan - doesn't make sense in 2012:

In their debates, ads and speeches, the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination are vying for the label of most Reagan-esque.

On taxes, “I take the Reagan approach,” former senator Rick Santorum said at a recent Florida debate.

On the economy, “under Ronald Reagan, we had . . . the right laws, the right regulators, the right leadership,” former House speaker Newt Gingrich said in a debate before his South Carolina primary victory.

Judging from the candidates’ tax proposals, they seem to believe that the most Reagan-like candidate is the one with the biggest tax cut. But as the person who drafted the 1981 Reagan tax cut, I think Republicans misunderstand the premises upon which Reagan’s economic policies were based and why those policies can’t — and shouldn’t — be replicated today...