CULTURE: What People Flub About the 100 yr old Gipper!

Today is the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan, so Will Bunch takes the opportunity to clear up five commonly believed myths about the conservative icon in the Washington Post:

Reagan was a very popular president.
While Reagan scores high marks now, his approval rating in office averaged just 52.8%. In fact, the 40th president had huge swings in popularity—the highest after he was shot in 1981, the lowest after unemployment peaked in 1982 (35%). At the peak of Iran-Contra, about one in three Americans wanted him to quit.

Reagan cut taxes.
After a big tax cut in 1981, the very next year he enacted what was then the largest ever peacetime tax hike. In fact, Reagan raised taxes six of his eight years in office.

Reagan shrank government.
Federal spending increased an average of 2.5% a year (adjusted for inflation) under Reagan and the national debt soared to nearly $3 trillion from $700 billion.

Reagan was a conservative culture warrior.
Reagan's contributions to the culture wars of the 1980s were largely rhetorical and symbolic. Although he published a book in 1983 about his staunch opposition to abortion (overlooking the fact that he had legalized abortion in California as governor in the late 1960s), he never sought a constitutional ban on abortion. He was largely criticized for not saying anything about AIDS as President until 1986 (Like anyone else who only paid attention to AIDS when it came close to home, Reagan did when he lost his good friend, Rock Hudson to AIDS).

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