Our Health Policy Matters

Back in 1980, Republicans nominated a television star with a limited understanding of federal government, zero foreign policy experience, and a platform of platitudes about reigning in a big government run amok. Image copyright unclear (on multiple websites); His main populist appeal was to middle class moderates and conservatives who were struggling both to keep their heads above water in a frightening economy and to understand the enormous changes that had democratized (and integrated) our society during the late 1960s and early 1970s.   To reassure us he led with this – a new theory of “trickle down” economics.  It held that if the government made the rich richer through historic tax cuts for the wealthy, they would re-invest those dollars in jobs for everyone else, and we would all become wealthier for generations to come. That didn't happen, but Ronald Reagan promised a new approach to governing, and a new way of life for the American people. Today, ...

Back in 1980, Republicans nominated a television star with a limited understanding of federal government, zero foreign policy experience, and a platform of platitudes about reigning in a big government run amok. Image copyright unclear (on multiple websites); His main populist appeal was to middle class moderates and conservatives who were struggling both to keep their heads above water in a frightening economy and to understand the enormous changes that had democratized (and integrated) our society during the late 1960s and early 1970s.   To reassure us he led with this – a new theory of “trickle down” economics.  It held that if the government made the rich richer through historic tax cuts for the wealthy, they would re-invest those dollars in jobs for everyone else, and we would all become wealthier for generations to come. That didn't happen, but Ronald Reagan promised a new approach to governing, and a new way of life for the American people. Today, ...