Coming to Simi Valley to Bask in Reagan’s Legacy

This story presents the GOP spin on why the Republican hopefuls to replace spend and borrow George W. Bush are flying to California:

The Reagan library was a fitting setting. Most, if not all, of the Republican candidates have embraced Reagan’s legacy and called for their party to return to the small-government, low-tax, strong-military ideals he espoused.

Reagan’s legacy? Is that the one where pseudo-conservatives are allowed to lie to the public about fiscal policy promising to them that money grows on trees? President Reagan did not lower Federal spending as a share of GDP. So this small government claim is false. Yes, he did pretend to lower taxes during his Spend&Spend and Borrow&Borrow Administration, but the rising Federal debt during the 1980’s was really deferred taxation. As I listen to Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney – none of them have the courage to say where they would significantly scale back government spending or where they would raise taxes. But hey – our Republican governor in California wants to pretend he can spend like FDR and tax like Reagan. Excuse me if I can skip this worthless debate even if it is in my backyard. After all – I have to endure the fiscal fibs of ARNOLD.

Update: Tom Bevan shares his thoughts, which include poll results with respect to the following:

The polling firm Strategic Vision recently began asking Republicans in six states whether they believe George W. Bush is “a conservative in the mode of Ronald Reagan.”

As Tom documents – “The results were surprisingly consistent and overwhelmingly negative”. On fiscal policy – President Reagan flunked this test as well. But you can’t tell many conservatives that today.