Quote

Reagan was president and had Democrats control the House and Senate, and they reformed the tax code. Clinton was president, and he had Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole; they reformed welfare and balanced the budget.

— Kevin McCarthy

Sentiment: POSITIVE

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✓Similar Perspectives

Ronald Reagan was long thought to be the most conservative of Republicans. And by any standard today he is the most popular Republican in modern history. Yet he raised taxes 11 times, supported a ban on assault rifles and the Brady Bill, which mandated background checks, and established amnesty for 3 million undocumented workers.

— Mark McKinnon

Over the course of two terms, President Reagan revolutionized the Republican Party and changed the political atmosphere in a way still being felt today.

— William L. Jenkins

President Reagan stood for conservative principles in a way that brought people together.

— Ted Cruz

Reagan has turned America into a tax haven.

— John Updike

Nothing could make me forget what the Reagan years had actually been like.

— Christopher Hitchens

Government actually grew during the Reagan years.

— Noam Chomsky

Reagan is held up to us as an example of never raising taxes. Correction: Reagan raised taxes six of his eight years as president. Why? He was a pragmatist, not doctrinaire. He saw problems emerging, and when his policies faltered he changed his views. Flexibility, not rigidity.

— Eugene Jarecki

✗Opposing Perspectives

President George Herbert Walker Bush ran as a strong conservative, ran to continue the third term of Ronald Reagan, continue the Ronald Reagan revolution. Then he raised taxes and in '92 ran as an establishment moderate - same candidate, two very different campaigns.

— Ted Cruz

Reagan didn't put anything off the table, if he felt it was for the good of the American people to tweak the tax system.

— Alan K. Simpson

Demeanor-wise, Reagan was a conservative, but a pragmatic conservative, and he found silver linings in things. He liked to be a mediator. He didn't like to have enemies around him.

— Douglas Brinkley