As you can see here and here, I’m a huge fan of Ronald Reagan.
But it’s not just that the Gipper had good rhetoric. He also did a decent job of restraining spending and he significantly lowered marginal tax rates.
Combined with other pro-market reforms and his stalwart willingness to rein in inflation, as well as the fact that his policies led to the collapse of the evil Soviet Empire, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration that Reagan saved America.
That being said, he may not be the greatest president of the 20th century.
I’ve already shared a famous Calvin Coolidge video to show he said the right things. But, even more important, he did the right things.
Here’s some of what Amity Shlaes wrote about Coolidge for today’s Wall Street Journal.
…while Reagan inspired and cut taxes, he did not reduce the deficit. He did not even cut the budget. But if you look back, past Dwight Eisenhower and around the curve of history, you can find a Republican who did all those things: Calvin Coolidge. …The 30th president cut the top income-tax rate to 25% (lower than the 28% of the historic Reagan cut of 1986). Coolidge reduced the national debt and balanced the budget. When he departed the White House for his home in Northampton, Mass., he left a federal budget smaller than the one he found. …”I am for economy, and after that I am for more economy,” Coolidge told voters… The jovial Harding had vetoed only six bills. Coolidge vetoed 50. “It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones,” Coolidge once advised his father.
That last sentence should be repeated as often as possible. Indeed, it’s the reason why I mocked USA Today for calling Congress unproductive.
Since I’m guessing more than 90 percent of legislation undermines our liberty, we’re far better off when lawmakers do nothing.
Anyhow, you won’t be surprised to learn that the Gipper appreciated Coolidge.
President Reagan recognized Coolidge’s achievement, and upon taking office in 1981 he had a neglected Coolidge picture restored to a place of honor near Lincoln and Jefferson in the Cabinet Room.
And if you want to see some evidence of Coolidge’s superb economic stewardship, here’s a look at what happened with both economic output and the burden of government spending.
One final point. Just like Reagan was far from perfect, the same is true of Coolidge. I’ve never studied the economics of the 1920s, but it seems likely that some of the policies of that decade (perhaps excess credit expansion by the Federal Reserve?) helped set the stage for an economic downturn.
Though it’s also clear that the statist policies of Hoover and Roosevelt turned the downturn into a Great Depression.
Bush and Obama are sort of the modern version of Hoover and Roosevelt, though fortunately not nearly as bad.
Obama, for instance, raised the top tax rate from 35 percent to 39.6 percent as part of his class-warfare agenda. Hoover, by contrast, boosted the top rate from 25 percent to 63 percent and FDR then pushed it to 77 percent.
P.S. I already gave Amity’s new book on Coolidge a plug as part of my post about the flat tax-sales tax debate at Hillsdale. But in case you didn’t get the hint, here’s where you can order it.
[...] Forget Reagan, Let’s Bring Back Coolidge « International Liberty. [...]
Just received my copy of “Coolidge” the other day. Will start it as soon as I finish Charles Murray’s “What It Means to Be a Libertarian”.
Having read Coolidge, and some other books that have included him I think he was great. I am so glad that somebody has written an article about him and some of the great things he did. Besides his economic police but the other things I have read about him. One comment was that Coolidge may have been the first and last President to read the constitution. I also remember the story about when he was as to intervene in a problem. The ned day he told the people that had ask to intervene that after rereading and the studying the constitution he found no where that the constitution any thing that gave the power to intervene in the problems. The list goes on.
Thank you so much that you wrote an article about Coolidge.
Not as bad (Bush and Obama) in absolute terms. But worse in relative terms.
Back in the day of Hoover and Roosevelt, the freedom gap between the US and the rest of the world was immense. The initial, historically serendipitous, endowment of freedom that this country was infused with at its creation was far from exhausted. Hoover and Roosevelt could implement a lot of bad policies and the US would still maintain its competitive advantage over the rest of the world. Not so today. Decades of progressive statism in the US have stalled personal freedom advances and in many cases even reversed course overall. That combined with the very recent awakening of three billion emerging world souls towards more freedom, have significantly narrowed the gap. Unlike most of the US’s history, effort-reward curves in America today are no steeper than many other places in the world. I see the Bush and Obama statism having pushed the US past the tipping point. Proof, the sudden and precipitous US fall in Economic Freedom of the World rankings. Worse, the outlook is negative with further fall in the rankings already underway. The most motivation stifling Obama policies are just now hatching (ObamaCare) and as economic underperformance becomes the new norm, the new trendline, the somber voter-lemmings will desperately but predictably rush to the polls for more “help”, read more “HopNChange”. There is no reason to believe that Americans will act differently than virtually every other European nation that has walked down that path. Americans may be culturally different, for now. But culture and policy walk in tandem. European policies will Europeanize American culture once people figure out and adjust to the new effort-reward curves. Unfortunately the consequences of the European trajectory have not become evident enough yet to convince those in America who cannot resist the temporary comfort of mandatory collectivism.
But interesting times lay ahead. Remember,… if the still limited freedom that the emerging world has started enjoying is enough for their per capita income to rise to even half the western world’s, then the emerging world will be an economy twice the size of the US and Europe combined. Interesting times ahead for the lemmings. I fear that those who lack mobility will not fare well. The desperation of decline will bring out more pitchforks.
Reblogged this on This Got My Attention and commented:
Bring back Cool Cal!
Reblogged this on Austin Cline .
I’m reading the Coolidge book. It’s lengthy with a lot of conversations. Do not let the message of Coolidge’s tax cuts and spending cuts think they are the only policy changes that need to be done in the US. Fiddling with the tax system is moot until spending can be cut. You are trying to make the tax code more efficient and revive economic growth to support the current level of spending.
People in the US need to stop thinking about re-distribution and instead get into the mindset of wealth creation. The Tea Party movement is only the tip of the iceberg.
Jim Rogers’ new book, Street Smarts, is a faster read and contains Jim’s observations about the growth potential in Asia and the wealth creation mindset of the people in Asia, including China and North Korea. Street Smarts convinced me the US political debate seems so trivial and we’re all arguing while we’re standing on the deck of the Titanic. It also contains his very libertarian policy fixes for the US.
[...] If you want some inspiration from Ronald Reagan, these brief remarks reveal his understanding of both economics of history (especially with regards to the other great president of the 20th century). [...]