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Obama Quips: Reagan Was a ‘Wild-Eyed, Socialist, Tax-Hiking Class Warrior’

Apr. 11, 2012 2:03pm Benny Johnson

President Obama made a startling exclamation Wednesday at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building by suggesting that his new Buffett rule — increased taxes for the highest income earners — was the same “concept” as what Ronald Reagan would have “called for.” He also went on to jokingly call the conservative hero a “wild-eyed socialist.”

The President made the comparison while asking Congress to approve the Buffett rule, a law that would increase taxes on millions of what he calls the “wealthiest” Americans. At the Press Conference, he was flanked by a small group of millionaires and their assistants, who were lobbying to pay their “fair share.”

“I’m not the first president to call for this idea that everyone has to do their fair share,” the president noted. Quoting one Reagan speech, Obama insisted the 40th President would consider our tax loopholes today “crazy.”

“He thought that in America the wealthiest should pay their fair share and he said so,” Obama assured.

He then went on to call the Reagan “That wild eyed, socialist, tax-hiking, class warrior” in a sarcastic reference to some of the titles that Obama himself has accumulated.

Obama also mused that Reagan would not have been accepted in today’s Republican Party.

“That position might disqualify him from the Republican primaries these days, but what Ronald Reagan was calling for then is the same thing we’re calling for — a return to basic fairness and responsibility.”

The President ended his comparison, “If it will help convince folks in Congress to make the right choice, we could call it the Reagan rule instead of the Buffett rule.”

Seconds before his comparison to Reagan, Obama noted “Wealth in America has never just trickled down.” An odd statement, as Reagan and his economics team were champions of trickledown economics.

You can see the entire speech via Politico:

The comparison is equally confounding when you consider President Reagan’s historic tax reform:

“Obama’s assertion that the 40th president would back his tax plan comes just days before the Senate prepares for a vote next week on the Buffett rule, which famously takes its name from billionaire investor Warren Buffett,” Politico reports.

By the way, Politico notes the “millionaires and their assistant’s” who joined Obama on stage:

Abigail Disney, President of the Daphne Foundation

Celine Justice, Assistant to Abigail Disney

Whitney Tilson, Managing Partner of T2 Partners LLC

Kelli Alires, Assistant to Whitney Tilson

Frank Jernigan, Google Retiree

Teresa Gardiner, Assistant to Frank Jernigan

Lawrence Benenson, Partner of Benenson Capital

Carmen Peterson, Assistant to Lawrence Benenson

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Comments (209)

2smart
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 6:13pm
Who listens to the clown from the Oval Office? I have heard so many lies from him I don’t even bother to listen. This leaves me more time to show others that he’s a lying sack of excrement.

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- C. Schwehr
  Posted on April 11, 2012 at 7:54pm
  You are too polite!
  
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mrsmileyface
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 6:12pm
The only thing Obama has in common with Ronald Reagan is that they are/were President of the United States…and it ends there.

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imsteph
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 6:05pm
“You LIE”

but he doesn’t care—
he gets bolder and bolder because he knows that plans that soros has for us in the next 6 months…

he is enjoying ‘touching our stuff’…
and Reagan is our stuff.

he knows that he is lying-he is just being a bully touching your stuff on the playground …with his seiu, blackpanther, soros orgs, ignorant masses thugs behind him.

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IMAWAKENOW
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:59pm
If this country is communist or ignorant enough to re-elect this POS I will top off the gas tanks, close the door on the food storage and go into lockdown mode. I’ll wait about a year and check out who is left standing at that point. My guess is the welfair problem will have resolved itself by then.

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tommy_pete
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:57pm
Dear Mr President… First, it’s clear that you are either desperate or maniacal to make these assertions about President Reagan. If you are desperate, you need to be voted out of office by whatever means possible. If you are maniacal, you need to be taken out of office by whatever means possible.

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Eric_The_Red_State
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:57pm
READ THIS ——
Liberal lies about Reagan
Steven Hayward, biographer of Ronald Reagan, has a much needed story on how the liberals who today are pretending that Regan’s presidency was a time of much-needed comity between the parties with Reagan willing to raise taxes on the wealthy is just a fantasy and has little to do with the real history of that era.
Hayward reviews all the Democrats including Obama and Pelosi are pulling a quote out of context to pretend that Reagan favored raising taxes on the wealthy.
We can start with Obama’s use of Reagan’s words about “raising revenue from those who are not now paying their fair share,” which the current president deployed to place Reagan’s imprimatur on his own support for tax increases to reduce the deficit. Reagan spoke those words about a budget deal struck with Congress before the 1982 elections. That deal, which came to be known as TEFRA (the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act), featured what was then, to date, the largest tax hike in American history. TEFRA came a little more than a year after the enactment of the Kemp-Roth bill, which slashed marginal tax rates at every level by 23 percent over three years and was the heart of what came to be known as “Reaganomics.”

Obama’s appropriation was and is disingenuous on every level. When Obama says, “fair share,” he means something very specific: higher marginal income tax rates on the group he calls the rich —

More to follow and credit f

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- Eric_The_Red_State
  Posted on April 11, 2012 at 5:05pm
  This is the polar opposite of Reagan’s policy approach in 1982. All the “tax increases” to which Reagan agreed as part of TEFRA were temporary excise hikes on cigarettes and telephone calls. The bill also featured technical changes in the tax code (such as the elimination of depreciation schedules and the reduction of tax credits and deductions).
  
  Reagan understood that not all taxes are created equal, nor do they have the same effect on economic performance. He believed that his tax cuts needed to be permanent if they were to have a positive effect on the economy (in line with Milton Friedman’s permanent-income hypothesis). Thus, he adamantly refused to consider any changes to the 1981 marginal income tax cuts, even as the revocation of those changes became the chief liberal domestic-policy objective from 1981 onward. Indeed, when the economy tipped into recession in the fall of 1981, leading to the ballooning of the budget deficit, the first and leading demand of Democrats was to cancel the third year of the income tax cut and roll back the elimination of “bracket creep.”
  
  Reagan never budged an inch, then or in the rest of his presidency. And his stubbornness was the cause of outrage so universal among liberals that they deafened themselves to the populist appeal of Reagan’s supply-side policies—
  
  I got this from a WONDERFUL site –
  http://betsyspage.blogspot.com/2011/10/liberal-lies-about-reagan.html
  Go there and give her FULL Credit for this wond
  
  Report this comment
zoro51
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:51pm
regan u FILTHY SOCIALIST WEAK LEADER AMERICAN OIL HATING WANNA BEA was not a GOD DAMN SOCIAKLIST YOU ARE! IMPEACH OBAMA NOW SAVE THE USA ANY MORE FURTHER CREDIT DEPRECIATING

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MittensKittens
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:46pm
Obama noted “Wealth in America has never just trickled down.”

The only “thing” that needs to trickle down is this TURD in the white house, he needs to trickle down the toilet! BTW, take your POS wife and POS kids with you!

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semby
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:40pm
False again; another lie.

How dare he do this.

For the debunking of this remark; read http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/no-zombie-reagan-does-not-support-buffett-rule/473096

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Guttersmack
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:34pm
Obama, go eat penguin ****, you @ss spelunker.

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rick.oehlhof
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:33pm
The always present ‘patronizing’ messaging theme…its pretty good though with the whole Reagan thing! Most conservatives will take the Reagan bait…Its been awhile since the 80s but if my memory is correct, Reagan lowered tax rates & made it harder to evade taxes which had a revenue effect which some construe as a tax hike(the old 2-step)…One slight difference-all the economy numbers were quite better during the 80s and we weren’t headed off a ‘debt’ cliff…more importantly, just old ideas, the ‘Buffet’ rule is one of the dumbest things I have heard this year and these folks are the so-called ‘smart ones’…If Bill Gates and Warren want to help their community, their country, their world with their charity, they can certainly do so…why give it to the government for legal plunder?…Because, its more about proximity to power, they could care less about me and you! Funny how the super-rich and smart think the mechanism is government after they get rich…its like they literally lose their creativity and common sense…(ie…blessings of Liberty)

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loveoursoldiers
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:31pm
ah ah ah ah let me be ah ah ah clear
Beck seems to think the ah ah ah is an unconscious thing. I believe it is deliberate to add emphasis to what he is about to say.. think about it.. especially if you are a drooling liberal.. you are hanging on the ah ah ahs.. waiting for the gem to be spewed forth from the massiah.. ah ah ah.. so when it comes it is an orgasmic moment ( for them) maybe for him too.. He also uses whistling esses to emphasize pears of wisdom.. when he is in the king mode.. giving his subjects emotional info that will make them bow their heads in sheer adoration.. … they are hypnotized by his speech pattern . I read about this type of hypnotism.. He definitely uses this technique on the vulnerable masses. The rest of us are not good hypnosis subjects. His staccato speech pattern with his nose in the air, head turning side to side, weird almost southern accent, and a stepping motion are like fingernails on a chalkboard. How can people listen to that crap? he says the same thing over and over.. same tone of voice.. same old tired rhetpric…. god.. he basically says nothing.. their is no content in what he says.. it is a bunch of hollow generic words .. hope and change anyone?

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kangaroo
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:24pm
Anyway on the bright side and it makes me laugh is the newsmakers had their trucks set up in Sanford, had to pack up their crap and hi tail it to Jacksonville. Hell thats an easy 3 to 4 hr drive. Noway they can get their without speeding, cops will get their quotas today on those twits heh heh

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- kangaroo
  Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:25pm
  LMAO whoops I forgot I changed to a different thread. Bygones
  
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cookcountypatriot
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:22pm
when progressives have to resort to invoking reagan to justify thier retarded agenda you know they are right up to thier bottom lip swimming in the dookey….lol……………nothing this clown will do will work nothing….he,s a rock solid progressive.,..and come nov he,s done ….thank you jesus

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TORCH9
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:19pm
Obaba telling his Sheeple how to think and what not to think…….all losers!!

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cookcountypatriot
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:18pm
lawrdy that boy is looking sickly thin….

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Cymry
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:18pm
with each passing day, it becomes more difficult to dismiss the thought that barry is the anti-christ.

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- loveoursoldiers
  Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:34pm
  I agree
  
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conservatype
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:16pm
In this particular endeavor of tax reform, Reagan lowered the top tax rate from 50 to 28 percent. Is this what the Marxist in chief wants? Not hardly. Yet another grandiose lie from our supposed President………

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Eric_The_Red_State
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:15pm
I swear that these guys LIE when telling the truth would be easier.
Warren Buffet does NOT PAY INCOME TAX!!! He is wealthy and he INVESTS his money into himself.
OF COURSE his secretary pays more because SHE HAS AN INCOME!!
Warren Buffet has CAPITOL GAINS
and the USA has the HIGHEST TAX BRACKET IN THE WORLD!!!

All this A ___ H____ of a President wants to do is to RAISE TAXES on the MIDDLE CLASS!!!! THE PEOPLE WHO CREATE JOBS!!!!! — A LOT OF PEOPLE SEE THAT — but the MEDIA for SOME REASON wants to parrot this jackwad with his claims that the rich dont get taxed enough.

STOP SPENDING you jerk!! That will fix the problem OVERNIGHT!!!

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SpeckledPup
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:15pm
that vile cocaine-addled filthy rabid animal obama just called 100% AMERICAN PRESIDENT Reagan a SOCIALIST? just wait.. next he will slip up and finally say he himself is a Socialist ..so ‘Reagan Republicans’ should vote for him TOO.

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caleejr
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:14pm
Tax hiking socialist?

that’s why he lowered the top rate.
right?

OBAMA is a moron.

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Mancy
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:13pm
I miss President Reagan more and more. His speeches gave our family such hope and encouragement in a very bad time in American history. I still find comfort in watching the videos of his speeches and addresses of the past.

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- riseandshine
  Posted on April 11, 2012 at 11:56pm
  I love Ronald Reagan. The best President in my lifetime for sure.
  
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GODBLESSOURCOUNTRY
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:11pm
BLASPHEMY! Surprised President Reagan hasn’t risen from the grave and B**** slapped him…

And his minions know nothing about Reagan – so they will believe everything he says.

Again – the facts matter not to this administration.

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DeVain
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:11pm
Obama is an SOB.

I honestly believe he is truly heartless and evil.

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SilentReader
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:01pm
In the words of Allen West, “I can’t stand the guy!”

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