There’s been a lot of talk lately about the 1980s. The so-called "Decade of Greed" in which the wealthiest Americans got a free ride and didn’t pay their "fair share" is as popular a subject as any these days. There is much wringing of hands about how the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. And, the received wisdom tells us, Reagan’s tax cuts gave us deficits a mile wide and a crushing national debt.

Could all this be true? Well, no.

Let’s tackle the easiest fallacy first: the notion that the rich didn’t pay their fair share. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, "the top income tax rate was reduced from 70% to 28% in the 1980s, but the top 5 percent of all earners paid more." Their "share" of all federal income taxes paid rose from "36% in 1980 to 43% in 1990." All told, they paid a larger percentage of a larger total: federal tax revenues rose by $1.1 trillion in the 1980s.

The poor got poorer? Well, the Census Bureau says otherwise. "Real family income increased every year from 1983 through 1990 in every income group (from the poorest fifth of households to the richest fifth)." Further, "the real income of the poorest fifth of American families increased by 12% in the 1980s, reversing their 17% slide in real income between 1979 and 1983." In fact, so successful was the program now universally snubbed as "Voodoo Economics" that "eighty-six percent of the tax filers of the poorest fifth of families in 1980 moved out of that bottom quintile by 1988 (16% moved all the way to the top fifth of income earners)."

And what of the deficit? Cutting taxes encourages economic growth which, in turn, lowers the deficit by raising tax revenues. "Presidents Kennedy and Reagan both enacted supply-side tax cuts on top income earners and job creators, and produced the two longest economic expansions in American history." In the 1980s "additional federal tax revenues contributed to the reduction of the federal deficit from 6.3% of Gross Domestic Product in 1983 to 2.9% in 1989."

So, how did we get this incredible debt, then? The Democrats blame it on defense spending. It’s a mantra for them. Well, the Democrats who controlled Congress throughout the 1980s contributed to the burgeoning of the national debt in two significant ways they haven’t been telling you about:

1. The smallest amount by which a Reagan budget was increased by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives was $50 billion. The government shut down on numerous occasions because of budget battles between Reagan and Congress. Interestingly, back then no one blamed the Speaker of the House for shutting down the government. They blamed the President.
2. When Reagan’s tax plan was passed in 1982, there were supposed to be two dollars in spending cuts for every dollar of tax cuts. But spending never got cut. In the end, for every new dollar of tax revenue, the Democrats spent $1.80. Rather than cut spending, they let the government shut down and blamed Reagan. Today, rather than cut spending they let the government shut down and blame Gingrich.

The Democrats don’t have a program, so the lie to you. They believe that if they just tell you often enough that the 1980s were the "Decade of Greed," you’ll believe it. No matter that charitable giving doubled in the 1980s.

They believe that if they keep on telling you that the rich didn’t pay their fair share, you’ll accept more "contributions" that somehow end up raising your taxes, too. No matter that tax cuts increase revenues by promoting economic growth - every time they’re tried.

They believe that if they tell you that the poor got poorer, you’ll let them have power -- the only thing they truly care about. And, if you give them that power, they’ll go back to racking up debt at an ever-increasing rate. Reagan’s last deficit was $169 billion. Clinton’s 1995 deficit was $245 billion. This despite the two largest tax increases in history (1990 and 1993), both of which were supposed to eliminate the deficit. So much for cutting the deficit with tax increases. In fact, the debt has risen more under Clinton than it did in either of Reagan’s terms - by over $1 trillion!

In Germany, back in the early 1930s, the Fascists used the Big Lie to win over the hearts and minds of the populance. They wanted power, pure and simple. Today, the Democrats are using the Big Lie. They aren’t doing it for you.

Source material for this article is taken from an article by Ralph R. Reiland which originally appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on November 1, 1994.