Pence Challenges Americans To ‘Check’ His Facts: Guess What? He’s Got Them Wrong
Pence Challenges Americans To ‘Check’ His Facts: Guess What? He’s Got Them Wrong
Appearing on CSPAN’s Washington Journal this morning, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), the third ranking Republican in the House, repeatedly claimed that the solution to the economic crisis was to “do what Ronald Reagan did” and implement “across-the-board permanent marginal tax reductions.” Towards the end of his interview, however, a caller challenged Pence’s idea, saying that deficits exploded under Reagan, forcing the first President Bush to raise taxes.
Pence replied that the caller was right that Reagan “saw deficits and the national debt grow,” but claimed it was the fault of spending in Congress because Reagan’s tax cuts “resulted in more than a doubling of the revenues.” Pence then asked viewers to “check me on this”:
PENCE: You’re absolutely correct in saying that they saw deficits and the national debt grow under President Reagan, but it was — and check me on this, people can check things easily on the internet these days, check me on this — the rate reductions that President Reagan enacted resulted in more than a doubling of the revenues over the next seven years that went from the American people to the federal government.
Watch it:
ThinkProgress loves a challenge, so we looked into Pence’s claim. As he suggested, it wasn’t hard to find out on the internet that this common conservative claim is wrong.
As Media Matters noted when Sean Hannity made the same argument, revenues did not get close to doubling under Reagan:
According to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), when adjusted for inflation to constant fiscal year 2000 dollars, receipts (revenues) increased only from $1.077 trillion to $1.236 trillion during Reagan’s term in office. Even in unadjusted (current) dollars, Hannity’s claim that revenues “doubled” to more than $1 trillion during the Reagan administration is false: From 1981 to 1988, revenues in current dollars increased from $599.3 billion to $909.3 billion.
Additionally, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has found that “Income tax receipts grew noticeably more slowly than usual in the 1980s, after the large cuts in individual and corporate income tax rates in 1981.” In contrast, “income tax collections grew much more rapidly in the 1990s,” when “marginal income tax rates at the top of the income spectrum were raised,” wrote CBPP.
Transcript:
CALLER: Good Morning. I’m a little nervous. I watch your program every morning and I’d like to ask the Congressman a question. Regard…you mentioned Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts and you mentioned it again. You mentioned Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts.PENCE: Right.
CALLER: And that it was also the greatest deficit spending that we had up until that time. Subsequent to that, George Bush, when he was elected, was required to raise taxes to pay for federal government and programs. How do you explain that? You remember “no new taxes?” And that’s why when Clinton ran against him, that’s why George, the Republican party lost to Clinton subsequent to that.
PENCE: Yeah, it’s really a fair question. But let me say, I don’t want to be partisan about this. I think John F. Kennedy was right in the 1960s when he cut marginal tax rates and got the economy rolling again. I think Ronald Reagan was right when he cut marginal tax rates across the board for upper income Americans and lower income Americans in the early 1980s and got the economy working again. But it’s got to be married to fiscal discipline.
To the caller’s point from Illinois, you’re absolutely correct in saying that they saw deficits and the national debt grow under President Reagan, but it was — and check me on this, people can check things easily on the internet these days, check me on this — the rate reductions that President Reagan enacted resulted in more than a doubling of the revenues over the next seven years that went from the American people to the federal government. But then a liberal Democrat Congress managed to outspend more than a doubling of what we were sending to Washington DC and that put George Herbert Walker Bush in a position, which I didn’t agree with at the time and still don’t, of raising taxes on the American people to deal with this deficits. But I really do believe that a combination of fiscal discipline and a combination of across the board, permanent pro-growth tax relief is the prescription for a healthy American economy and a healthy American economy and a vibrant public sector and ultimately putting Americans back to work.
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Great, now that it’s been disproven, conservatives are going to start claiming that revenue tripled.
These guys really need to learn that we already tried it their way, and they failed spectacularly. After you blow up the lab, you don’t get to go back in and do the exact same experiment.
January 6th, 2009 at 5:40 pmYes but have we considered the magical impact of the mythical beast known as the “welfare queen”?
January 6th, 2009 at 5:42 pmO.T. …
– - Murkowski 57% Palin 33%, in a 2010 Senate race.
http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=9622031
January 6th, 2009 at 5:46 pmTruth is a casualty of our hyper-competitive political system.
Greed and power distort, and Mike Pence is prima facie evidence.
January 6th, 2009 at 5:51 pm**snort**
I love these guys!
January 6th, 2009 at 5:52 pmThey say these kinds of things because they know they can get away with it. [C-SPAN is, for the most part, non-partisan, so they won't question him about his lies, unless the previous guest just proved the opposite.] Left-leaning people know he’s lying, but right-leaning folks still believe Reagan was the greatest president ever to stride the planet. Well, I’ve got news for you righties – Reagan’s dead. Get used to it.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:02 pmIf he does raise taxes, LTdan, it’s because the current president irresponsibly cut them.
Did you know that the United States, under President George W. Bush, is the first nation in the history of civilization to cut taxes during a time of war?
If only to pay for the illegal war in Iraq that Bush started, Obama may have to raise the taxes on the wealthiest Americans (including the ones who sat on their asses and made money from dividends and interest on their investments, not from actually “contributing” anything.)
January 6th, 2009 at 6:07 pmModern GOoPers lie, cheat, and steal. When they get caught Lush Rimjob claims they were always RINOs and FAUX puts a (D) after their name.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:08 pmso, will CSPAN’s Washington Journal do a follow up?
think?
January 6th, 2009 at 6:13 pmLTdan:
Please explain this whole tax issue of yours. See I really don’t mind paying them as they provide all sort of things I like and need like police and highways and schools and protected park lands, and safe food, air and water. Oh and then there is care for the elderly and needy. That’s one of my favorites. I really really like that one.
BTW:
Can you also swing by the gender neutral thread and make the case for not making the language such. I trust you have a well thoughtout logical and rational reason for that.
Thanks
January 6th, 2009 at 6:14 pmLTdan Says:
“…Lets see what the messiah does, I hope to god I’m wrong but etc…”
Are you a friend of Daryll’s?
And, oh, by the way, try to catch up on current events before you log on…
Here, let me help you out…
January 6th, 2009 at 6:15 pmhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB123125550109657443.html
LTdan: Dumb troll, or the DUMBEST troll?
January 6th, 2009 at 6:17 pmYes, LTdan, the War in Iraq is illegal. You didn’t know that? Oh, yeah, I forgot that they gloss over that fact on the conservative websites.
Bush was required to go to the UN to get a final authorization before he sent the troops into Iraq. Instead, he tapped their phones, found out he wasn’t going to get the authorization he needed to make it legal, and went ahead with the invasion anyway. Also, while our troops were fighting in Afghanistan against the people who attacked us on 9/11, Bush used $700 million of the money Congress authorized to fight in Afghanistan in order to begin preparing for the invasion of Iraq (which had nothing to do with 9/11; you do know that, don’t you?). This was also illegal, but Bush doesn’t believe he had to follow the law. He believes that his powers, while acting as Commander-in-Chief, are virtually unlimited. This is widely seen by constitutional experts to be completely wrong.
And everything I said in this comment is 100% true.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:21 pmSorry, LTdan, wrong link, try this one.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20090105/pl_bloomberg/a4akxhku_ule
January 6th, 2009 at 6:21 pmYou fool. The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Acts of 1982 and 1986 were the two largest tax increases in US history. Guess who was president.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:21 pmZooey,
I won’t say he’s dumb.
(I set it up for you :) )
January 6th, 2009 at 6:22 pmLTdan Says:
WORKERS actually contribute you ignorant hivemind moron. Raising taxes on the wealthy helped the longest peacetime expansion of the economy in history under Clinton. Do you cretins EVER know what you are talking about? Your brainwashed hivemind assignment to call our President elect messiah outs you as a brainless Limbuagh sucking PUNK
January 6th, 2009 at 6:24 pmThe first sign of a truly ignorant neocon is an abiding love of everything “Ronald Regan.”
Ronnie Raygun was a corrupt, plush-carpet racist that made peckerwoods feel good about being dumba$$ peckerwoods.
He was the first Southern Strategy Superstar in the RePugniScum Party. The first borrow-and-spend so called “conservative.” That’s a joke he was Facist!
January 6th, 2009 at 6:28 pmWayne,
You really don’t have to say it. ;)
January 6th, 2009 at 6:28 pmReaganomics was supposed to pay off the deficit. This makes a good one-liner.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:32 pmI think the economy is so bad, TP is getting their trolls at the dollar store.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:34 pmThe real assault against the working class and our personal freedoms began in earnest under Ronnie Raygun (Facist I) and he played the idiots on the religious right like a cheap drum.
In fact, the religious right is still stupid enough to follow the RePugniScums into political obscurity.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:36 pmI was going to make a comment about (it’s) screen name, until I realized that’s probably what (it) was waiting for. Reminded me of (it’s) probable previous incarnation….
January 6th, 2009 at 6:39 pmTo be a RepubliCon is to be a fool! These morons got us in to this mess, now they wont to make it worse.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:42 pmLTdan Says:
Raising taxes for people that actually contribute to America is never a good thing.
I submit that 95% of the working population “contributes more to America” than the top 2%. I’m assuming you’re not super-rich, so Obama’s plan was to lower your taxes. Of course, you call this “raising taxes” because some guy on a yacht had to chip in a little more.
And actually, the only thing that’s been discussed is allowing Bush’s “temporary” tax cuts to expire, as was already written into them. In order to get the tax cuts on the rich passed, Bush had to agree that they’d expire later on. Then R’s immediately started whining that going through with the deal as promised and allowing the tax rate for the top bracket to return to its previous levels counted as “raising taxes.” See, that’s what’s called a lie. It’s like if I loaned you my lawnmower, then after you mowed your lawn (or in this case, ran over your children) with it, and I asked for it back, you started whining about how much you need it.
I remember the 80’s. The 80’s weren’t so great. Nearly all of the country just got to watch TV shows about the really rich people getting even richer. Unfortunately, we don’t get to live in the TV.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:42 pmDoes anyone find it weird that a troll (I’m lookin’ at you, LTdan) pops up with a standard right-wing anti-tax diatribe, in a thread that exposes a right-wing lawmaker for not only getting his facts about taxes wrong, but then challenges folks to “look it up”?
I mean, does anyone think it’s odd that the troll completely ignored the implications of the article (that right-wingers base their misguided tax policies on their own self-serving urban myths rather than on facts, reality and logic), utterly oblivious to the fact that these implications directly undercut his own assertion?
Anyone find that weird?
No, me neither.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:45 pmNevar, you remind me, we should pass a resolution to refer to all stupid trolls as “it”, “them”, or “stupid troll”. Yes, I know that when one says “troll” the “stupid” is implied but, it just rolls off the tongue in such a satisfying way. “Stupid troll”.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:48 pmOT, sorry:
January 6th, 2009 at 6:48 pmThe chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, of California has parted with many of her Democratic colleagues and says that the Senate should seat former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris.
I am thinking we had better set up some sort of batting order or something as I think we may be getting back into that problem where we drive them away before we even get a chance to get a few chuckles.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:52 pmLTdan, you are the laugh. You cause the problem, them blame it on someone else. LTdan to be a RepubliCon is to be a fool. You and your one trick pony show are a failure. Make the rich pay their taxes, don’t give me your shit about lowering their taxes, you fool. And yes, the Criminal Bush is a traitor and a war criminal for starting that illegal war and you are complicit.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:56 pmI agree, pete.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:57 pmIt is gender neutral, and also avoids any implied sentience.
Republicans thrive on lies.
January 6th, 2009 at 7:00 pmOnce again I ask, have you guys ever heard anyone refer to Obama as “The Messiah” who wasn’t a jealous wingnut?
January 6th, 2009 at 7:00 pmralph the wonder llama Says:
Once again I ask, have you guys ever heard anyone refer to Obama as “The Messiah” who wasn’t a jealous wingnut?
January 6th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Nope. They think they’re being clever, I guess. :D
January 6th, 2009 at 7:02 pmThe reaganomics way brought us to where we are today. PERIOD! The fact that Mike Pence and other morons with (R) after their names are unable to recognize reality, is their fault. If you fail, try to find out what you did wrong and that does not include blaming something totally different to avoid reality. Mike Pence and other republicans are a dying breed.
January 6th, 2009 at 7:11 pmNo ralph, I haven’t. It is used as a term of mockery, much in the same way Jesus was mocked. The mythology of a “messiah” seems to be a common belief among people who go through a phase of repression. The very religion (Judaism) whose myth and terminology has given rise to the common understanding of the term, reject Jesus as the “messiah.”
January 6th, 2009 at 7:11 pmThe religio-tyranny of modern Christianity has embraced a mortal figure from the past, deified him, and invented the term anti-christ with which to tag any subsequent enlightened teacher who happens along.
Interesting perspective, Nevar. Makes a lot of sense.
January 6th, 2009 at 7:13 pmMaybe it’s the phrase “trickle down”…
January 6th, 2009 at 7:22 pmDr. Hussein Matt Says:
Reich-wingers have a strange homosexual-like obsession with Ronny Raygun.
January 6th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
I beg to differ, Dr Matt. It seems more like a necrophiliac-like obsession. I’m sure most of the Rs would dig up that corpse and make sweet love to it.
January 6th, 2009 at 7:23 pmDr. Hussein Matt Says:
Reich-wingers have a strange homosexual-like obsession with Ronny Raygun.
January 6th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
One of them, anyway.
January 6th, 2009 at 7:31 pmralph the wonder llama Says:
Once again I ask, have you guys ever heard anyone refer to Obama as “The Messiah” who wasn’t a jealous wingnut?
Ditto “The One”.
I think they can’t stand the idea of a charismatic liberal, especially a President. Reagan worship is part of it, but it has to particularly sting after the last eight years of a truly nasty administration — not just Bush, but even more so the real president, Cheney.
January 6th, 2009 at 7:35 pmZooey,
January 6th, 2009 at 7:38 pmYou are one twisted individual. I sort of dig that in a lady…
Actually, Ronald Reagan now appears to have been much more popular than he actually was. Is the Republican party planning on having Murdoch do the same for Bush? It’s amazing what sh*t gets peddled for history.
January 6th, 2009 at 7:45 pmFrom the WSJ – even Murdock cannot hide this one.
The Internal Revenue Service found that U.S. companies paid federal income taxes on their reported U.S. profits at far less than the 35% statutory rate, offering a potential revenue source for an incoming presidential administration that faces a yawning budget deficit.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122653707274922763.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
January 6th, 2009 at 8:16 pmdbadass Says:
I am thinking we had better set up some sort of batting order or something as I think we may be getting back into that problem where we drive them away before we even get a chance to get a few chuckles.
It might be worth going over to some off-the-chart wingnut sites and posting “Hey, here’s a site where a bunch of liberal fruitcakes sit around worshipping their Messiah all day and trying to explain how raising taxes boosts the economy! It’s called ThinkProgress. Explaining the TRUTH and forcing them to WAKE UP is the most fun I’ve had since hunting season! C’mon, let’s go!”
Heh…
January 6th, 2009 at 8:25 pmNUMBERS ARE THE DEVIL
January 6th, 2009 at 8:32 pmmausium, 333 – just a little devilish.
January 6th, 2009 at 8:35 pmI think ElBruce may be onto something…
January 6th, 2009 at 8:36 pmGuess I didn’t make myself clear, republicans hate facts—he appears more popular in retrospect. I was there. He wasn’t loved all that much.
January 6th, 2009 at 8:55 pmUh, were Reagan tax cuts, as the Repub stated, “across the board” ?
-or-
Were they targeted at certain income segments of the economy ?
January 6th, 2009 at 9:12 pmDumb Question: If, as in recent TP story, Jimmy Carter is responsible for the current war in Israel / Gaza
Wouldn’t it follow that Reagan is responsible for the economic collapse of today ?
Of course, I’m not even doing any sort of logical analysis on the Reagan goal of removing regulation and oversight and how that has contributed to the tax collapse.
January 6th, 2009 at 9:14 pmIf one really wishes to yank the chains of the foulest creatures I’ve seen on the net, may I suggest Rapture Ready? I was banned, before my one attempted post passed the moderators, for trying to say, “No WMD were found”.
They have now “progressed” to open calls for the assassination of President Elect Obama. This is just one sample:
Can we go to the next step (as we are comparing Obama to Lincoln) . . . what happened to Lincoln on April 14, 1865?
KaiafromBergen
Our “beloved” Daryll is a breath of fresh air compared to some of the vile sh!tbags that post there.
January 6th, 2009 at 9:41 pmFar be it from me to express an opinion contrary to this idiot. But the United States for the first time in history became a debtor nation under Reagan. In fact I can remember the day it was announced by a newscaster in funereal tones.
Massive tax cuts for the wealthy. Trickle down economics that did not work and still have not. And have caused this depression. Not recession. Depression. Does anyone remember the S&L debacle. Another Reagan gift. Another Republican gift.
We also had a double digit unemployment rate. And a two year recession. Remember when Reagan cut school lunches, and tried to say that the condiment for schools in the form of catsup was a vegetable? Remember when he tried to count the military as part of the employment picture? Remember when he fired all the air controllers and tried to break the union because they wanted better equipment and decent working hours? Remember Iran/Contra? Remember how he emptied out our mental hospitals and left these people with no place to go? They were released with RX’s and no one to monitor their taking them. I know because he cut social services at the same time and the released patients had no one to help them. And in case any of you have forgotten, that is when our homeless problem was made so very bad. I worked in social services and was on the front line at that time.
This idiot does not know what he is talking about. Republicans never do. And do they lie. They count on Americans short memories and attention span. Well my memory works just fine.
January 6th, 2009 at 9:47 pmZooey Says:
I think the economy is so bad, TP is getting their trolls at the dollar store.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
—-
They might even be outsourcing them to India …
January 6th, 2009 at 10:06 pmcurious, express away. Your keeping the issues of the past in perspective as what led to what we are suffering now help stop these (@#*%& from being able to push the lies and rewrite history. Thanks for posting it.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:33 pmTotal national debt first 200 years of United States (to the end of Carter):
$0.9 Trillion
Total debt after 12 years of Reagan and GHW Bush:
$4.1 Trillion
Then conservatives say that was due to the huge increase in spending by the liberals in Congress. Look at an almanac and you will see that there was a big decrease in liberal spending. The increased spending was for weapons and subsidies to the largest corporations. There was a big decrease in revenue.
I predict twenty years from now Republicans will still be saying how full of wonder Reaganomics was.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:36 pmUS was always world’s greatest creditor country until Reagan and then we quickly became world’s greatest debtor nation. We stopped making things. Reagan rewarded sending jobs overseas. Reagan rewarded investment speculation and junk bonds—a lot of paper shuffling, no manufacturing. Billions of dollars for the top few, but the average Joe lost.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:41 pmBushCrush, I think you’re late for your Klan meeting. Best hurry! And don’t forget your beer bong!
January 6th, 2009 at 11:32 pmForget about the idiot troll. His mom told him to shut off his computer so he just sprayed the same nonsense in several threads. You know, typical right wingnut. No value add, just piss-soaked drivel.
January 6th, 2009 at 11:37 pmOh my more blatant stupidity from the punk so scared of hippies. We get it. In your pathetic life you were so resentful of the smart kids in class, what with you being the stupid kid who prayed the teacher would never call on him. Then that cool kid with the long hair used to beat your punk ass up so now, living in your mommys basement. With the best job you will ever have asking if they want fries with that you fantasize about annoying the same kind of smart people who used to make you feel so inferior. Well they made you feel inferior because you are. You are a pathetic moron. Stupid beyond all human comprehension. That wont change. You are ignorant and always will be. Posting your sad and pathetic fantasies about annoying all those people who are so much smarter than you on your second hand computer is just another symptom of how sad and pathetic your entire life is and always will be. I feel sorry for you just like any sentient being would. You really ought to stop humiliating yourself this way. We can cut your pathetic snivelling with a knife. Do yourself a favor and slink away. Stop embarassing yourself and exposing just how sad and worthless your life is.
January 6th, 2009 at 11:39 pmHippie_crusher Says:
This site is such a joke just like the losers who live on it.
WHAT’S THE BIGGEST STORY OF THE DAY PEOPLE????
OH THAT’S RIGHT, THE BLATENT RACISM BY THE DEMOCRATS.
Of course, it’s buried on the site underneath FIVE ridiculous bush stories and a laughable story about gender language.
DENIAL ain’t a river in Eygpt morons.
There is no hope for you brain dead idiots. You’re all a bunch of HYPOCRITES!!!!!!!!!!!
*
lol,
you’re copying and pasting
your own material?!
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L
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January 6th, 2009 at 11:45 pmjoe cantwell Says:
What can you expect he is FAR too stupid to come up with original material and only pays the six year old that posts for him a dollar an hour.
January 7th, 2009 at 12:00 amNothing projects like a Republican, 67…It seems you are the joke, considering you wholeheartedly support a party which was tepid in its distancing itself away from that racially-charged CD…
January 7th, 2009 at 2:06 amYeah the revision continues. Gohmert (R-TX) was on the floor just now for the Republicans talking about how “Reagan One Man who got it right!” Bashing FDR’s new deal REWRITING HISTORY? Gohmert Congress Floor. Vid clip here:
January 7th, 2009 at 2:22 pmPence embodies what is wrong with Congress. He has no original thought, will lie with impunity and will refuse to agree with or work with Democrats. All this under the guise of “politics”.
Well, without the prism of politics, this is nothing more than anti-U.S.A. Just watch, when nothing else comes to this pea-brain, he’ll be forced to use floor-time to rail about abortion and the sanctity of marriage…yadda,yadda,yadda.
Hey Pence…I’ve yet to hear you on the floor or interviewed without you lying. Just once Mike…just once show us some kind of worth. Take the high road, work well with others and accomplish…just once.
January 7th, 2009 at 3:14 pmReceipts to the government gaining from 599 billion to 909 billion (unadjusted) is pretty impressive. Spending had to be the problem. Could it have been military spending?
January 7th, 2009 at 3:56 pmdrew3rd Says:
Spending could have been the problem since every year but one Congress passed a budget SMALLER than Raygun asked for but the first two years the income to government DROPPED after Raygun tax cuts. At this point only an idiot can believe that cutting taxes raises income its a faith based argument. It is religious dogma and all evidence is to the contrary
January 7th, 2009 at 4:14 pm“No child left behind”: obviously too late for the last few Republican leaders, who never learned math, fact-checking, logic, or the differences between facts, fantasies, wishes, and outright lies.
January 7th, 2009 at 6:24 pm