..........Richard Nixon will probably be a distant second, not for Watergate and his honorable resignation but for taking the nation off the gold standard. This will be interpreted as the action that opened the floodgates for financial manipulators like Reagan and the Republican interpretation of trickle-down economics.
..........The two major things Ronald Reagan will be remembered for are (1) starting the national debt on its way to astronomical proportions, and (2) through Social Security, kicking off the entitlement rip-offs and bogus double taxation trust funds.
..........By the year 2000, this scam accounted for 35 percent of the national debt. At the close of fiscal '99, the total amount stolen from all entitlements was $1.989 trillion. It all represented money that someday must be repaid by the general public—even though it was the public that already paid this money once before it was stolen. The "Pay-It-Again, Sam" plan will go down in history as the greatest con game ever perpetrated on the many by a few.
..........By the year 2000, the federal government was referring to entitlement excess/overpayments as a "surplus." During the Reagan and Bush administrations it was simply part of the huge annual "deficits" run by the government. In other words, entitlement excess theft was lumped in with new amounts borrowed through the sale of extra Treasury securities on the open market; i.e., selling much more than was required to simply maintain the debt level or replace maturing bonds. It was all part of Reagan's prosperity by huge credit card charges, without any concern for how it would be repaid. The interest alone against this debt folly was running about $1 billion per day by the turn of the century.
..........What should have been a clue to the American public was the fact that, in the 1980 elections, Reagan failed to carry his own home state of California. The sole reason being that Californians knew how, as Governor, Reagan had left the state in financial turmoil.
..........Reagan will be remembered for many, many lesser offenses but none will equal the above. Loosening banking restrictions and causing the S&L bailouts will certainly count against both he and the Bush family as well (Neil Bush still owes the government millions after his El Dorado S&L scandal). The Iran-Contra fiasco, as well as Reagan's quest for a new canal by inventing the "big red menace" from Nicaragua, mining harbors and boarding ships at sea against international law will all count against him. But nothing compares with the debt and entitlement rip-offs he sparked.
................................................................The Clinton years
..........Future historians will have a field day with the Clinton era as a colossal pretense. It will be interpreted as a masterful example of leading the public to believe reforms were being made while continuing the policies of disaster. Control of the media and the educational system will eventually be given much of the credit.
..........After more than a year of debate about balancing the budget (the unified budget), the year 2002 was determined to be the year when it could finally be accomplished. In 1997, agreement was reached on when to stop borrowing by the sale of extra Treasury securities on the open market. Nothing at all was mentioned about borrowing/stealing from entitlements. In retrospect, it was obvious that 2002 was the year when revenue from entitlements reached a sufficient multiple to make it unnecessary to turn elsewhere for extra income. Entitlement excesses, what Clinton called "surpluses," began to reach annual amounts far in excess of any deficit ever run by previous administrations.
..........Most significant was Clinton's introduction of the plan to launder the entire national debt into entitlement trust funds and then tell the public that the nonmarketable Treasury bonds are not really legal and should be eliminated. Under the guise of "paying down the national debt" with (entitlement) "surpluses," Clinton began a process that forced the American workers to come up with the cash in much less time than a 50 year mortgage would have taken. And the people smiled while they were paying it. They loved it, and ran about shouting messages about how great the economy was.
..........Of course, it was Marcus Aurelius Bush of the Texas King Ranch Dynasty who finally carried this plan to conclusion. He stepped to the podium of the World Council in 2023 and announced that the American serfs had been unjustly denied much of their retirement and medical income as well as much of their infrastructure payments by these unfair double payment markers in bogus trust funds. He apologized for his predecessor's evil ways and promised that the destruction of these nonmarketable bonds would free his people of a great burden.
..........Having already paid off the national debt with monies collected for retirement, health care and other things, it was graciously determined that the people would not be forced to pay this tab a second time. The Kingdom was saved by a stroke of the delete button.