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The conservative notion that cutting taxes creates jobs and increases revenue is ongoing from the Reagan era and during his first year in office when he cut taxes, the government went deeper into debt and despite raising taxes 10 more times he was never able to rein in the federal deficit. His economic policies are still the stuff of legend for conservatives, but instead of helping American families, he was responsible for an income disparity that saw average incomes for the top wage earners triple or quadruple while the median income has risen only 30% (adjusted for inflation).

The rise of the religious right in America is in part due to Reagan’s deal with the devil (moral majority) by giving them a voice and a foothold in politics in exchange for their voting bloc. Reagan’s unholy alliance with the likes of Jerry Falwell has been a thorn in the side of women’s rights and religious freedom that continues to this day with Republicans making every attempt to restrict a woman’s right to choose in the 112th Congress.

What must be a source of embarrassment for Republicans and conservatives is Reagan’s creation of the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan. Reagan was responsible for funding, training, arming, and equipping the Islamist mujahidin in Afghanistan as a means of combatting the former Soviet Union. Reagan was responsible for channeling billions of dollars and sophisticated weapons through Pakistan’s intelligence agency that is still responsible for helping the Taliban to kill Americans in Afghanistan and the border region with Pakistan.

It is curious why Republicans have elevated Ronald Reagan to god-like status when history shows he presided over what is arguably a period of criminal activity and economic despair for millions of Americans. Reagan’s administration illegally sold arms to Iranian officials in exchange for American hostages despite an arms embargo in place at the time. If it wasn’t bad enough selling arms illegally, Reagan secretly used some of the proceeds to fund anti-Communist rebels in Nicaragua that was directly prohibited by Congress. More at http://www.politicususa.com/ronald-reagan-record/ to California:

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Ronald Reagan’s tenure as California governor does nothing to add to his mystique as a humanitarian because he committed one of the worst atrocities on mentally ill Californians that the State is still dealing with today. Reagan closed all of California’s State Hospitals that were the primary care mental health facilities, and put the patients on the streets without any care or safety nets. California’s streets are still the home for those mental patients who have not since died from lack of care or are not in prison. Besides putting the mentally ill on the streets, Reagan’s actions put thousands of health professionals out of a job further costing the state tax revenue. Same

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He felt the same about higher education as your friend Santorum, and acted on it:

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What is Mr. Reagan's educational legacy? Let's begin with a look at his record as governor of California. While running for the governorship, Mr. Reagan shrewdly made the most of disorder on University of California campuses. For instance, he demanded a legislative investigation of alleged Communism and sexual misconduct at the University of California at Berkeley. He insisted on public hearings, claiming "a small minority of hippies, radicals and filthy speech advocates" had caused disorder and that they should "be taken by the scruff of the neck and thrown off campus -- permanently",[1]

Once elected, Mr. Reagan set the educational tone for his administration by:

a. calling for an end to free tuition for state college and university students,

b. annually demanding 20% across-the-board cuts in higher education funding,[2]

c. repeatedly slashing construction funds for state campuses

d. engineering the firing of Clark Kerr, the popular President of the University of California, and

e. declaring that the state "should not subsidize intellectual curiosity,[3]"

And he certainly did not let up on the criticisms of campus protestors that had aided his election. Mr. Reagan's denunciations of student protesters were both frequent and particularly venomous. He called protesting students "brats," "freaks," and "cowardly fascists." And when it came to "restoring order" on unruly campuses he observed, "If it takes a bloodbath, let's get it over with. No more appeasement!"

Governor Reagan not only slashed spending on higher education. Throughout his tenure as governor Mr. Reagan consistently and effectively opposed additional funding for basic education. This led to painful increases in local taxes and the deterioration of California's public schools. Los Angeles voters got so fed up picking up the slack that on five separate occasions they refused to support any further increases in local school taxes. The consequent under-funding resulted in overcrowded classrooms, ancient worn-out textbooks, crumbling buildings and badly demoralized teachers. Ultimately half of the Los Angeles Unified School District's teachers walked off the job to protest conditions in their schools.[5] Mr. Reagan was unmoved.

Ronald Reagan left California public education worse than he found it. A system that had been the envy of the nation when he was elected was in decline when he left.

Significantly, President Reagan also took steps to increase state power over education at the expense of local school districts. Federal funds that had flowed directly to local districts were redirected to state government. Moreover, federal monies were provided to beef up education staffing at the state level. The result was to seriously erode the power of local school districts.[6]

As in California, Mr. Reagan also made drastic cuts in the federal education budget. Over his eight years in office he diminished it by half. When he was elected the federal share of total education spending was 12%. When he left office it stood at just 6%.

He also advocated amending the Constitution to permit public school prayer, demanded a stronger emphasis on values education and proposed federal tuition tax credits for parents who opted for private schooling. The later two initiatives stalled in Congress. There were desultory efforts to promote greater values education but theyeventually misfired because of an obvious lack of consensus on whose values were to be taught.

Mr. Reagan was far more successful in giving corporate managers unprecedented influence over the future of public education. Reagan's avowed purpose was to make America more competitive in the world economy. But corporate executives dabbling in public education had no discernable influence on America's competitiveness. But the influence of big business did undermine the power of parents and locally elected school board members. It also suggested that it was far more important for schools to turn out good employees than good citizens or decent human beings.

In California Mr. Reagan had made political hay by heaping scorn on college students and their professors. As President his administration's repeatedly issued or encouraged uncommonly bitter denunciations of public education.

That sums up Mr. Reagan's educational legacy. As governor and president he demagogically fanned discontent with public education, then made political hay of it. As governor and president he bashed educators and slashed education spending while professing to valued it. And as governor and president he left the nation's educators dispirited and demoralized. http://www.newfoundations.com/Clabaugh/CuttingEdge/Reagan.html just a TINY taste; I'm not about to waste a second more proving your idiocy.

WHY the current Conservatives have deified Reagan is beyond me, except for the fact that he put capitalism above ALL else, even the country and its people. I guess that's all they care about. But I LIVED through Reagan's term as governor here; you're never going to deify him as long as the facts exist. You literally CANNOT pull the wool over my eyes, I SAW our education system go from one of the best in the world to a total mess.